Cardboard Music

Music, has it a future?

2012-02-14T11:12:00.001+01:00

It has been a long time since I've been able to sit and start writing something on my blog. As always time seems to fly and one puts other things first, in my case album reviews for Free Jazz Blog along with putting up shelves, working on a pure data project which has to be presented in February and at the same time trying to wonder what is going to happen to the musician in the future - if what's been happening (politically) in my neck of the woods is anything to go by.

Belgium, where I reside, is feeling the effects of the Euro crisis, and as always it's never the people responsible for the problems who actually have to answer for them. Here in Belgium the government, like everywhere, is eager to reduce figures and is starting to pick on various groups of people who are technically unemployed hopping to get a few extra pennies in there pockets which (they hope) will miraculously save the day.

Musicians, and some other artists, enjoy a special status known as 'artists status', which basically means they have the right to unemployment (under particular conditions) on the days they don't work. I should add that they are expected, and do, pay taxes at the end of each year based on what they earn. But now the government has decided to make musicians 'prove' they are musicians ..... which is reasonable enough if the rules are fair. In the future musicians will be obliged to hand in proof of there musical position including ; posters, CDs, videos, contracts, newspaper articles, web articles, among other things. However, what interests me most is the effect it's going to have on the musical community at large, and more importantly brings up an important question concerning the future of music, musicians and live music.

30 years in full time employment at the Esterházy court for Haydn,

something which would unthinkable today outside of academia.

In times gone by employment for musicians was as readily available as any other job and there were of course no mp3, Fairlight CMI's or DX7's to replace the real time musician, lessening their employment field. There were certainly plenty of teaching jobs around although just one option (and a good one) among many others for professional musicians. In fact one could speculate that until the mid 1970s there was a possibility to be a full time employed musician. Teaching (as already mentioned), studio work, arranger, live bands on radio programs or later television, studio orchestras linked with film studios (all studios had their own bands/orchestras). Even areas (or regions) of countries had orchestras such as the Northern Philharmonic, based in Huddersfield, UK, or of course the famous Berlin Philharmonic which has featured throughout the years on so many treasured recordings. But these permanent music jobs no longer exist, and with the decline of the record companies there are no real patrons in the music business any more.

Our best friend the LP (see Wiki's entry for some interesting info).

I still buy them, but many foolishly sold them ... and regret it?

The music business - and it's decline.
Sadly the music business has shrunk in size dramatically since the late 80s. With the development of the CD and it's digital copying possibilities, record companies signed their own death warrant. It's strange to think how these large companies pushed people to dump their treasured LPs in favour of the new technology (as they did with VHS and the more interesting Betamax), promising better sound quality and a few other user friendly arguments. However, what the record companies had not forseen was the invention of the internet and what we now know as 'piracy' and all the possibilities of digital sharing and copying. Sadly the general public has not really understood and excepted their part in the destruction of the music industry, and that includes the life of a musician.

Musicians in the business - and their decline.
Since recording studios and record companies worked close together up until more recently, the life of a musician revolved around building a career within the various fields on offer. Rock musicians such as bassist John Paul Jones started life as arrangers and studio musicians, as did hos colleague Jimmy Page! In fact many a budding rock musician from the 60s and early 70s has come from the full time employment of the studio to become a fully fledged hero in the pop business. But one should not forget that major employment for all types of musicians including jazz musicians for big bands, horn sections and of course soloists (*) in their own right on or off recordings. One look at the names of musicians on records from these periods will reveal a rich and interesting list of musicians earning their livings in the studios and on the road. Horn sections such as the Tower of Power or Blood Sweat and Tears worked extensively with dozens of artists whilst maintaining their own working units. Towns and cities had cliques of musicians that could be found on nearly everybody's record from that town.

Leland Sklar - see Wiki link below.

In L.A no record was complete without the likes of Leland Sklar, a bassist who could be found on everyone's record. If one takes a look at Leland's credits you can start to see, and understand, what he must have done between 9h and 23h seven days a week. Many more from the same group of session musicians in LA such as Russ Kunkel, Danny Kortchmar, and Craig Doerge (to name but three) made very good livings playing in the studios. Of course they also worked as musicians out on the road also. One has to be aware that the rise of these studio mafia (as they were called), also brought about a sort of musical apathy which eventually gave birth to the punk movement. This was due to a sort of wall paper music attitude to sound/record production in the mid 70s leading to the term MOR(**) short for 'middle of the road', or what is probably known as adult rock music. This was also an important turning point in the production of popular music leading to the beginning of Punk music and the development of small independent record labels which meant a certain autonomy from what was seen as the evils of the large music machine. However, many of these small labels needed the larger corporations for distribution and other services, but it did sow the first seeds of discontent into the system regarding royalty distribution, market share, lobbying (mainly on TV and radio) which required money. Of course as small names became big names, they also (generally) moved away from smaller companies needing to benefit from the riches that could be brought about from fame.

The 80s and onwards

From the mid 80s and onwards the development of stars who were considered 'grass roots' or alternative originally suddenly started to change. This also meant that employment possibilities also changed. With the move away from guitar based bands towards the synthesiser (see DX7 and Fairlight earlier) groups such as Frankie Goes to Hollywood, The Art of Noise and also jazz musicians Herbie Hancock or Pat Metheny were all moving towards a different model of music making, using the computer as a starting point. Digital technology was developing fast and soon the appearance of the Compact Disc, or CD in 1976 spelt, if unknowingly, the beginning of the end of the music business as we knew it. Before copying meant listening and recording onto a cassette in real time and any imperfections had to be manually erased, chosen or moved. This also included more importantly the recording studio scene. After all tape machines were large - 24 and 32 tracks being the norm - and it was expensive, and rare to find people with such machines in their own living rooms, although not unknown! To record one needed to hire a studio which included an engineer or two. If you wanted to save time session musicians or friends could be used to add the tracks, or of course synths which had developed considerably since their early arrival in the 80s - see synthpop and it's earlier friend, the experimental Krautrock. Of course you could opt for the Mike Oldfield model of do-it-yourself. But by the end of the 80's computer software for recording was already starting to be developed enabling musicians to side step studios. Of course the first programs to be usable actually appeared in the early 90s - an album recorded by the Beach Boys (no less!) using Pro Tools.

Dancers at Wigan Casino.

The Disco
The disco's roots go way back to the early 1900s and what were rent parties, honky tonks, speakeasy bars and other private events where people met up to dance together usually to a jukebox, or maybe a lone piano player. What's interesting is that these events were often 'private' and hidden from the authorities. I suspect that they also didn't impact on the live music scenes at the time, maybe even the opposite. In the war years in France (as an example) the Nazi's banned jazz and bebop hence driving members of the public and the resistance to dance in secret! Of course the more 'upmarket' clubs even promoted live music, even if only for personal gains such as the famous Cotton Club. But the modern trend really developed from clubs such as the Whisky a Go Go in Paris and later in the 50s Chez Régine (also in Paris) which became a new model for clubs which would later be founded in the 60s in London where (often immigrant) people could meet up and dance, and of course gradually young people in general. In the 1970s disco really took on a new meaning and actually developed itself as an art form. DJ's became something of celebrities and so drew crowds just on their names alone. The disco craze - from the 70s onwards - also seems to have been the beginning of competition between live music and the record dancing public with the introduction of turntable spinning geniuses with plenty of original music that only they featured. But with the development more recently of electronic dance music and styles such as House, Jungle, Breakbeat, Electroflow etc live music is not so much threatened but is now in direct competition. What has really impacted on the music scene up until present times is the difference between hiring 1 person who makes 1000 people dance and of course a live group of 5 (or more) musicians to do the same job. Of course some music styles (as already mentioned) cannot be easily copied by live bands, but the prohibitive cost of working with live musicians has been a major factor in the downturn in 'mass' live music in popular dance venues.

Greg Wilson, one of the modern fathers of electro disco in the UK.

When talking about DJs one should not forget their importance as individual innovators, and so their important influence on the music scene. DJs such as the above Greg Wilson, Afrika Bambaataa and many others have been hugely influential on many styles of music, even if their talent comes (originally) from taking records and 're-thinking' them as dance music.

Other areas of employment affected by the downturn in live music
Although it isn't often mentioned there are - like in all areas of business - many other areas that have suffered through the downturn in live music.
Engineers, Acoustical Engineers, Architects : Studios which were once individually designed 'acoustic' areas are mostly small garage like rooms which are often acoustically dead, as modern computer programs can produce the necessary acoustic images without playing in a acoustically perfect room.
The Record Shop : Probably the area that has been most notably hit by the downturn in live music and the rise in on-line and digital sales. Whereas once the record shop was central to youth culture and a place of knowledge (W.H.Smiths and Boots being exceptions to the rule) when looking for new records, versions of recordings and other related areas such as styluses, record decks and cleaners.
Sheet Music : Although classical music still uses this medium, and to a certain extent jazz also, with the introduction of CDs and computers it has been possible to produce play-along media which is not only fun, but beneficial in the learning process. Although play-alongs (Music Minus One and Aebersold) have been on the market for years and a success, more recently programs such as Band in a Box and Wii's Guitar Hero are easily available and so it is no longer necessary to read music to be able to enjoy copying your favourite pieces as everything is brought to you care of your screen.

Street Musicians ***

Finally, live music?
One has to wonder what happened to live music, which has not disappeared, but has certainly not the same importance in our society as it once did. There are few cafés and bars with live music whereas once every village had live music in one of it's bars/pubs. Weddings and other live parties rely less on musicians, which were once a central part of their organisation.

Music education is taking away the real essence of 'learning and discovering music' with your peers. We now even teach popular music in Rock and Pop schools, something of a contradiction when thinking about the roots and meaning of such a music. Nearly all the famous bands of popular music history came about through a mixture friendship, a garage to practice in (just an image), learning music (mostly) from scratch, copying their favourite records, the bar-e chord, a local pub, and plenty of energy and imagination. The result of this mass music education is being felt in several ways such as :
a) Less private teaching work. This has brought about a rise in teaching degrees and posts in Conservatories and academies for 'popular' musicians, the result being fewer practising musicians. Originally a living could be made generally by playing live music, however the goal is now recognition and financial stability in academia.
b) The rise in music qualification in popular/jazz music, BA, MA and Doctorate. As mentioned above some of the effects are due to financial stability. Other negative aspects are the fixing of what is now 'right' and 'wrong' in music, a dangerous thing when talking about an ever shifting or developing art form. Whereas before your influence was only as important as your reputation for music or composition produced, now teachers are fixed in institutions for years with no real reputation or background (your credentials) .... except a qualification. Jazz - as an example - is now being fixed in time as classical music was. You can now see the result of this in small clubs where dozens of conservatory trained kids can play amazingly well, yet without any history or love of the music. Important names and records are often mp3 files that friends have passed on, and often not even the original versions. As with Chinese whispers these 'falsehoods' often continue to be passed on to other students who then become teachers.
c) Downturn in wages? Due to the glut of young musicians flooding the market festivals, bars, clubs, and other institutions are being overwhelmed by demand. There is not enough work for everybody, and in a free economy the lowest bidder always wins. Wages have dropped as younger players are prepared to play for little money, often due in part to the fact that nowadays students live with help from their parents (and why not). Of course the thirst to play music is also an important factor in their excepting to play for less, that's what drives people to play music, not money, for that one should be a banker or a business person. However, they need not insist on correct rates which in the long term does not help the market as a whole.

In conclusion
The future of live music seems to be uncertain when talking about financial stability and prospects in the real world of music. As mentioned academia seems to be the safest haven for players nowadays. It is a sad fact that politicians are unable to help promote music (and the arts) for what they really are, something of vital importance to our society. Until the general public is made aware of what all this means to their daily lives it seems that the future of musicians as an important section of our society will diminish towards museums and conservatories to be discussed and intellectually developed. Sad really when back in the days of J.S.Bach and Haydn music was a respectable and viable career move.

Finally .......... If you got this far, thanks! As usual I ended up writing about a topic which should actually be a Doctorate or thesis at least. There is A LOT of information and facts that I haven't touched on, included or discussed at all, due to space and of course the context (a blog). Hopefully I will one day tackle this subject in the way that it deserves including quotes, interviews, real hard facts, and much more scope to explain the effects of music on our society and maybe some of the reasons for the neglect (and disrespect) that the general public has for it and the musicians that play it.

* = An article on hidden soloists that 'made' records could be added, but it would be very long, but certainly interesting. A couple of names that pop into my head are Lou Reed's Walk on the Wild Side (soloist Ronny Ross), Gerry Rafferty - Baker Street (soloist Raphael Ravenscroft), The Beach Boys Pet Sounds (numerous soloists include - Barney Kessel, Carol Kaye, Plas Johnson, Hal Blaine etc) and finally Billy Joel's - Just the Way You Are ( soloist Phil Woods) oh there's also Jimi Hendrix hidden career as a session musician with the likes of The Isley Brothers, Little Richard and King Curtis. The list is endless and any additions would be most grateful as a researched article on the 'hidden soloist' could be very interesting! See this link on session musicians to get a picture of the working life of the studio musician.

** = MOR. Many musicians and public alike seem to think that the MOR scene was responsible for produces faceless popular music. However, if one takes into consideration the popular music scene today one realises that nothing has changed, in fact it's only got worse. Jazz schools and now rock schools are all responsible for not encouraging individuality fired by heavy lobbying on the part of the music industry and the general public's general refusal to accept more daring forms of music - avant garde jazz, electro acoustic music, contemporary classical music, atonality and the list goes on.

*** Street Musicians = I couldn't find any reference for this photo, so excuse me for using it and anyone who knows who it belongs to I would be most grateful for some information.

Best of list ... for me.

2011-12-31T01:03:00.000+01:00

It's fun to see all the best of lists appearing. I sent mine off to the Free Jazz Blog today which as usual Stef asks us to do and which is fun, you have to think through what albums you've reviewed and enjoyed most this past year. Of course it doesn't represent reality at all as you can only say what you've listened to and naturally that isn't the best of anything. However, what's great is that you get to look at lists of albums and take note of those that look interesting. I'll certainly be trying to get hold of quite a few interesting things I've noticed on other peoples lists and you'll notice below a short list of 'I should get hold of this one' which might be just as enlightening.

What I heard and liked (a lot) in 2011.

- The Engines - Brass and Wire
- Peter Evans Quintet - Ghosts
- Twelves - The Adding Machine
- Red Trio + John Butcher
- Nate Wooley - Trumpet/Amplifier
- Peter Evans - Beyond Civilized and Primitive
- Russ Lossing Trio - Oracle
- Noel Taylor & Alberto Popolla - We All Fall Down
- Motif - Facienda
- Jeff Davis - We Sleep Outside

- Peter Evans and Nate Wooley - High Society

- Fond of Tigers - Continent and Western (didn't arrive at my place until 2011)

- Pikapika Teart - Moonberry (an excellent prog-rock band from Siberia)

- Mark Hanslip and Javier Carmona - Dosados

- Examples of Twelves - Things Will Be

- Ochion Jewell - First Suite For Quartet
- Sam Trapchak's Put Together Funny - Lollipopocalypse

What I noticed on lists that looked real interesting (take note to get hold of).

- Foton Quartet - Zomo Hall

- Hera - Where My Complete Beloved Is.

- Chris Dingman - Walking Dreams

- Jason Adasiewicz - Sun Rooms

- Scoolptures - White Sickness

- Hopscotch - Hopscotch

There's certainly plenty of stuff out there that I didn't mention or just missed off the list. It's interesting to see how commercial the year has been on other fronts and I must say that much music that I've heard this year is leaning towards the pop vein. The development of the prog-rock, post-rock market is sounding more and more like U2's Joshua Tree album but without vocals and so gone are te days of real melodic (or experimental) exploration as King Crimson or Soft Machine and C°. One look at the BBC's round up of the year shows how depressing things have become when taking into account the X-Factor craze, convincing people that they have some sort of talent rather than understanding they are pale imitations of stars they admire.

Much of the market is geared towards these stars and lists such as Free Jazz Blog (for the full list click here) show there is still a strong following of real exploratory music. Unfortunately I don't know of any blogs (please tell me in the comments section) who are more dedicated towards electro acoustic music and reactions towards this area of the music world. I myself get the chance to see in Brussels the electro acoustic music festivals run by Musique et Recherche and so in recent festivals I've had the chance to discover many interesting composers working in this area. My favourite discoveries - in 2011 - were Suk-Jun Kim, Pierre-Alexandre Tremblay and Monty Adkins, all of whom worked in different areas, musically speaking. Suk-Jun Kim has won many awards for his compositions some of which I heard at the festival, and his work is full of humour whilst fairly abstract. Interestingly enough PA Tremblay and Monty Adkins (both based in the UK) seemed to work in a way that was far more 'musical', so making their work extremely accessible to the average listener- if they ever get a chance to listen.

Anyhow, I will be interested to see what happens in 2012, crisis and all, as often music produced in politically difficult climates can often bring great results. I'll also be keeping an ear open on the Polish Jazz front as this seems to be an area where music is fast developing, but where the general public is still ill informed. Happy listening in 2012.

New news from the OPen Source

2011-12-23T12:57:00.000+01:00

As usual it's always great to post an update on work, and in this case one of my favourite projects OPen Source. We had a few concerts throughout this last year (2011) which were very successful. Unfortunately with music such as this finding concerts is not so easy .... bad luck really as the music is such fun to play and actually far more challenging than playing a jazz standard (and believe me i do a lot of that).

We've been talking about putting together a recording for some time now, but as always there's always not enough time or whatever. The other problem we have is not having a permanent drummer. Our first drummer Antonio Pisano had to head back to Sardinia for a change of lifestyle which he hadn't foreseen. I liked his playing very much as he often approached the music from a very interesting 'rhythmic' area. He also had the possibility to play percussively, or with swing, in fact an all round great drummer. Since then we have been working with the great Joao Lobo who also happens to live in Belgium and so happens to work often with our bass player Hugo Antunez. However, after a long pause we started working again and recorded a new session. Here it is (or at least the first part) with drummer Jakob Warmenbols doing a great job on the drums.

Here's '1st Part' which if I remember correctly is about 17 minutes.

1st part - December session

I'm waiting for Augusto (Pirodda) our pianist to send me the final parts - not sure how many there are - so I hope to post these up before the end of the year. If you have 17 minutes to spare sit down and enjoy the OPen Source session from early December 2011.

Peter Evans - Beyond Civilized and Primitive

2011-12-21T15:02:00.000+01:00

It seems the solo trumpet is coming back into it's own. In the past year I've reviewed two new releases (and this is the third) containing solo trumpet music. Granted one was a trumpet duo, and both records had the same musicians on them. The first record (an LP) this year was from Nate Wooley, a great rethink of the trumpet as a sound source. The second was the duo from Nate Wooley and Peter Evans called High Society, an equally interesting take on how two trumpets can make a coherent (and interesting) trumpet record, yet never fall back on the trumpet as we imagine it. And so here we are again with a solo trumpet record, this time from Peter Evans. In a way these three albums could almost make a 'triptych' when considering the two trumpeters (*) three albums between them.

Anyhow, what about the record :

The LP (the product) -
Normally you wouldn't discuss album covers in a review but in this case it seems an important part of the 'whole', a beautifully produced LP from Dancing Wayang records. In this day and age where in general we get cheaply produced CDs with nothing in/on them, it's a pleasure to buy records that are filled with first-class music, but are also works of art in themselves. The LP is beautifully packaged, if only simply, with (see above) a wonderful screen printed cover which folds out. There's a lovely inlay card which has the details of the music on it, printed on high quality card (like a wedding invitation) with close attention given to layout, fonts, and all the rest. To add to that the first 100 LPs (**) get a free mini CD with various out-takes or more likely extra material.

The LP (the music) -
On the earlier - solo/duo - records mentioned, the emphasis seems to have been on the trumpet but not as a trumpet. On this release the trumpet is recognisable as 'itself'. However, you don't get any Dizzy Gillespie licks or Lee Konitz solo type improvisations, the music is probably very much influenced by the works European sax improvisers such as John Butcher or Evan Parker, I'm sure one could site such trumpet masters Leo Smith and Bakida Carroll as people who have also worked in the solo area producing very interesting and influential works like this one. One thing that connects us to the Euro sax tradition is Evans use of the circular breathing technique in a way that enables him to produces hypnotic lines - such as Evan Parker - that can continue ad infinitum. Of course, that's not the whole record, Peter Evans has produced a well balanced program of 6 pieces (three per side) using a multitude of techniques and ideas. The titles are all taken from Ran Prieur's 'Beyond Civilized and Primitive' and read like titles from a Charles Mingus album. In what way Evans (and the music) connect with Prieur's ideology is unknown but the titles conjure up images questioning what we perceive as conventional.

The first track 'complexity, change, stability, giving, freedom, and both the past and the future' is (in fact) a very simple and peaceful statement which develops into longer lines. Evans use of re-shaped sound makes one think of a trumpet played backwards, a technique he's used on other records (albums). On 'History is Broken' (Tk 2) the trumpet may be used as we expect but Peter Evans use of circular breathing makes this piece into a hypnotic soundscape that is punctuated by the sound of air being drawn in as the phrase/line grows blurred as it becomes frantic. Once the (long) line - a sort of contemporary flight of the bumble bee - is started (there are no breaks) one wonders how it will end, an abrupt pause only ends up heightening the tension as draws to it's conclusion. 'What is possible?' the last piece on side one returns to a relaxed and meditative state, using over dubbing to produce a large organ like chord drone bringing us back to the first idea (Tk 1) of melody and re-shaped sound. Side two brings new elements to the table and works mostly with re-shaping the sound of the trumpet. The long titled : 'We like hot baths and sailing ships ......... we get eaten by roving gangs.' (there are 59 words all in all) being an experiment in multi tracking and re-shaped sound whilst the second track develops what is considered as trumpet playing by using anything but notes. The last piece of this excellent release 'our nature is not a location' reminds us of the peaceful simplicity of a solo trumpet, yet as anyone who knows Evans playing will know purity, projection and extremes are never far as we a caught out at the closing notes.

The Mini-CD (if you bought one of the first 100 records) -
4 tracks make up this mini CD. Although it may be unintentional, it seems the mini-CD has a more abstract direction. The music on here takes (to my mind) a different direction to the accompanying LP, and in a way it's a perfect compliment, giving us a different style of music which is constantly probing and fascinating.

Photo triptych of Peter Evans taken and created by C. Neil Scott.

Anyone who is curious to see how the trumpet and contemporary improvisation is developing will be more than satisfied by this release. I will certainly be following other releases on this label to see what other goodies they bring out next.

* = Is that 'trumpeters' or 'trumpetists'?
** = Limited edition of 500 ..... buy now or regret, it seems they sell out of most of their pressings!

24 hours - Mingus on Mingus

2011-12-18T00:50:00.001+01:00

Last 24 hours!! "Mingus on Mingus" can be real because of you.
Thanks to all the support we are receiving. We still need to make the last sprint.
Help us by pledging to the project and spreading the word to everyone around you.
Let's get on the Big Screen!

This is the link: http://kck.st/vCCn8N

All my best,
Valeria Rios

3 days to go - Mingus on Mingus

2011-12-15T09:06:00.000+01:00

Here's the latest mail from Kevin Mingus. As you can see they nearly have the money to make the Mingus documentary to become a reality. Spread the word, who knows maybe you know someone who can help?

I know Valeria has been the one to be in touch with you all while her
and I worked side by side this month. I wanted to let you know how
moved I am by your openness to support this project. I could not
think of a more fitting context under which to present Mingus on
Mingus than that of the dedication, love and drive you have for this
music.

Your posts have connected us to a community which is now in support of
the project.

We have 3 DAYS LEFT and I graciously ask you for one last push. We
need you to reach out once more to let folks know we are in THE FINAL
PUSH! Please let your readers know how far we have come, what we have
accomplished together and the bit we need to go.

Thank you very much

Kevin Ellington Mingus

You can also go directly to the Kick Starter site here.

Sam Trapchak - Lollipopocalypse

2011-12-10T16:34:00.001+01:00

As always some things just drop out of the air as a big surprise, and here Sam Trapchak's Put Together Funny - Lollipopocalypse CD isone of those. As I mentioned in an earlier blog posting it's alwaysnice to get new music sent on to you by musicians that enjoy your musicarticles. Along with Free Jazz Blog(which I also write for), the amount of new musicians and styles that Iget to hear is quite astounding, free jazz, grunge jazz, books and allsorts. Of course the time taken to listen to and write about theselittle treats can sometimes take up much of your spare hours, and ofcourse sometimes the music is not always so interesting .... but I mustsay that so far I've been lucky on that count.

The album in question ..... Lollipopocalypseis one hell of an album, introducing me to new players and also to anew writingtalent (and naturally strong compositions). In fact it was this aspectthat jumped out at me when I started to listen to the album. Somethingthat often takes a while to 'get into', or get used to, was quiteimmediate on this record. Sam's tunes are instantly attractive but alsohave a complexity that makes the music very interesting. One can't helpbut notice Dave Holland's influence (or style) over the tunes,different rhythmic figures and time signatures combined withcontrapuntal melodies, and also the groups sound concept. However, theplaying of the musicians is certainly not a pale imitation at all but avery mature sounding band with their own voices.

Long Live/Less Say (tk3)

The guitar work of Tom Chang and the outstanding Greg Ward(on alto sax) make the album a real pleasure to listen to with strongsolos throughout. I particularly enjoyed Greg Ward's sound whichconjures up the history of the saxophone, on 'Losing You'(tk5) he plays with a maturity that brings to mind Johnny Hodges'vibrato, slurring, and sound concept in general, however, on the othertunes Ward's sound (and concept) is very modern. The tunes 'LongLive/Less Say' (tk3) or the opening 'Different Dance' (tk1) havelurching odd meter melodies and grooves which provide exciting rhythmicterritory for Greg Ward to really shine on. Tom Chang's guitar playingon these tracks provides an image of a completely mature player. 'Onthe Cusp of Cancer' (tk2) is probably the only 'rocking' tune on thealbum and here Chang opts for an out and out raunchy style which suitsthe music very well. Other treats are 'Tongue and Groove' (tk4) asimple melody filled with rhythmic surprises, the lovely ballad(already mentioned) 'Losing You' (tk5) , the surprise ending of thetitle tune 'Lollipopocalypse' (tk7), or 'Precious Few' (tk6) abrooding tune with one of the few bass solos nicely featured. In fact thequite presence of the leader Sam Trapchak sometimes makes you forget whose datethis is until Sam finally takes a solo! The rhythm section of bass anddrums with drummer Arthur Vint keeps this music swinging and relaxed on (often odd meter) tunes that are never showy, just tasteful.

Sam Trapchak fits nicely into the 'CDs that drop out of nowhere' category,as new CDs (or LPs) mean new names to discover. On Sam's CD the onlyname that seemed familiar was that of Greg Ward (alto sax), the othermusicians Sam (on acoustic bass), Tom Chang (guitar) and Arthur Vint(drums) didn't ring any bells - adding to the albums discovery value!Greg Ward, already a name on thejazz streets in the US, certainly helps this record to be a successfulproject. His cutting alto sax with a sound that moves between JohnnyHodges and Steve Coleman is quite infectious. Having said that theother musicians on this album all come through with the goods neededfor this music and a very high quality at that. Certainly an album thatI would recommend to anyone interested in mainstream modern jazz wholikes their jazz music served up with melody, swing and a modern edgethat makes the music contemporary.

::::::

Footnote : To save any confusion ...... the group is called (if I understand correctly) 'Sam Trapchak's Put Together Funny'. The album's title is 'Lollipopocalypse'. I didn't get any details of the record label but the disc is available via Sam's website or through CD Baby.

More from Mingus on Mingus.

2011-12-08T00:36:00.001+01:00

The documentary team have received many inquiries concerning relationship between Mingus on Mingus and Sue Mingus:
- Is Sue affiliated to the Mingus on Mingus project?
- Why is Sue not supporting the project?
- Why there is no information on the project on the Official Charles Mingus Website and Facebook page?
- Why is Sue not listed as an interviewee?
To that end Kevin Ellington Mingus have written the following Open Letter (see below).

We have 10 days left and we've got some support from you, please, weneed to push harder and as you'll notice from the letter we are workingquite independently. Now more than ever we need to spread the word tomake this project real.

Open Letter

REGARDING THE ESTATE OF MY GRANDFATHER CHARLES MINGUS

I have never had access to or financial benefit from the Estate of Charles Mingus. Throughout the years, I have made many attempts to forge a connection. All have been rejected.

The love and joy with which Charles has been presented to the world was central in my understanding of him. However, his image and memory have been closely guarded and controlled. One voice cannot define the legacy of a man who touched millions.

Feeling resistance to reach into this side of my heritage led me to discover a better way of understanding my grandfather and my own lineage. This belief is realized in this documentary, collecting different perspectives that all together shape a more complex and genuine figure of Charles Mingus as a man and as an artist.

While the lack of support from the Mingus Estate is disheartening, the warmth and encouragement I receive from Charles’ children and the jazz community is what makes this journey so special. Their faces, voices and all the intangible power of what they share are the greater part of the fabric I am weaving into my story. The story of jazz, Charles and me.

Kevin Ellington Mingus
www.orangethenblue.com

Mingus on Mingus

2011-11-10T15:10:00.000+01:00

Update November 2011

Just a quick post to bring to peoples attention the page dedicated to the new documentary being made 'Mingus on Mingus' (look at the top of this blog - Mingus Film Page), a documentary film being made by Charles Mingus' grandson. The film company will be sending out updates regularly to various blogs/websites so as to keep people up to date, this blog included. If you're interested to know more please follow this link to get more information.

Thanks.

Ochion Jewell - First Suite For Quartet

2011-10-26T19:10:00.000+02:00

What's most interesting when writing about music is that you don't always get to choose what you listen to. The choices we make about what's on our turntable or in the CD player at any moment are based on what we like, when we like it. However the advantage of listening to music not chosen by oneself has the advantage of discovering new music and sounds. Some music is very difficult to describe and so write about (*), other times the records are easily digestible over and over again. Of course there are a few which somehow never really catch your imagination and so lay in a pile of 'what could I say about this', but you can't like everything even if you except (and I do) the John Cage philosophy that everything is music (**).

Dawn of Midi

The other nice thing is that you occasionally get updates from musicians who's records you reviewed or mentioned on earlier posts. One post from Dawn of Midi seems to get many visits on my blog, which doesn't surprise me as the groups first album was an excellent (very accessible) free jazz record which deserves to be heard by a wider audience. Two of the musicians in Dawn of Midi, pianist Amino Belyamani and drummer Qasim Naqvi, have been working recently with saxophonist Ochean Jewell and so when Ochion recorded a CD they immediately suggested that he send a copy to Cardboard Music. And that's where you get lucky ... unknown records from unknown musicians.

Ochion Jewell's - First Suite for Quartet.

Ochion Jewell's CD titled First Suite For Quartet released on David Binney's Mythology label, seems already one step ahead of your 'average' first CD release that I often get to hear. With such a grandiose title I was curious to see if a through composed piece of 48 minutes could hold my attention, and especially for a first album! Many first albums often attempt negotiating tricky chord progressions combined with displays of multiple time signatures and out of control technique, making for awkward and often unsatisfactory listening. Here Ochion Jewell has written music which is immediately spiritual in outlook and very mature in content. The fact that Ochion seems to be working with some of the Dawn of Midi hints that he must be interested in working in a more open area of improvisation. On First Suite For Quartet there's a fine blend of 'improvised' music and structured improvisation on the album, it seems the compositions are open ended enough to allow for each player to express himself. The music is however not 'free jazz', but certainly related to the modern school of 'melodic-free'(***) ... if such a school exists yet (LOL). There's plenty of interesting directions taken within these tunes which keep you guessing, tempo changes, rubato sections, modal ostinato riffs, romantic melodies that gently unfold, and even some driving post Coltrane(ish) ideas that give the soloist time to blow hot and cold. The musicians work within the suite format letting the tunes unwind at their own pace, giving themusic a sort of natural flow that links the sections together organically.

Ochion's arrangement of the material is central to the success of this project. The tunes are played in solo, duo, trio or quartet formats, with much attention given to dynamics, giving the music relief and so maintaining interest throughout. As for individual tunes there seems little need to comment as the music flows from the start with the opening soprano sax/piano duo, through to the closing minutes with a re-harmonised version of 'You are my Sunshine', bringing the album to a close with a (lovely) piano trio! In fact the music is best heard as the suite that it is meant to be, with the tunes being carefully ordered to allow each tune/track to flow effortlessly into the next. Finally, I should add that the playing (from the musicians) on the album is impeccable, played with just the right amount of solo space, in/out playing and no waisted notes.

A Snakeride Through The Fog (Tk 2)

Footnote : I'm not sure that this is Ochion's real first record as the article here seems to say there is another record to be found elsewhere. However if First Suite For Quartet is anything to go by it would be well worthwhile checking out his other work.

The Band : Ochion Jewell - saxophones, Amino Belyamani - piano, Sam Minaie - double bass, Qasim Naqvi - drums.
The Tunes : 1. from dust 2. A Snakeride Through the Fog 3. "...but that there goes the baddest lone-ass wolf I ever did know.." 4. ()zero -1() 5. nectar 6. Atonement 7. You are my Sunshine

Mythology Records MR1012.

(*) = I can think about an amazing Michael Moser record Resonant Cuts that I still haven't plucked up the courage to write about as the music is so difficult to put into words. However it's a real pleasure to listen to!
(**) I suspect that John Cage never heard Star Academy or X-Factor!
(***) What's 'melodic-free'? Well, I suppose what I mean is the more modern area of improvisation which keeps melody as it's central idea, but experiments with rhythm and tonality. Some examples of this range from Keith Jarrett's classic 4tet (with Dewey Redman, Charlie Haden and Paul Motion) to more modern groups such as Mujician, Dawn of Midi, Clusone Trio, Atomic or Cecil Taylor's earlier work even. I will try to blog about such groups at a later date!

World Music, where 'are' it's roots? PT 1

2011-10-09T12:25:00.000+02:00

World jazz, where did it all begin, if in fact it did really have a starting place. Recently I was listening to an excellent recording of Steve Lacy playing a piece - which I'll talk about later - called Clichés. It made me wonder when (and how) did world/folk influences really become what could be defined as a real jazz form of it's own. Naturally jazz in all truth is a type of folk music that developed away from it's simple roots as folk music and which then quickly mutated into it's own sophisticated art form known as jazz. It would be interesting to know how many of the early musicians played both types of music i.e. performed traditional music and more western influenced popular forms which gradually became known as blues (and the beginning of popular music aka 'jazz'). So in fact jazz is world music and oddly enough it's staring us in the face since the beginning of the 1900s. But what is interesting and ironic is how gradually musicians have made an effort to include or reintroduce other folklore elements into the music ... but with a more direct approach adding rhythms, scales and modes and even just titles. I wouldn't attempt to cover all the different types of music that has made this symbiosis of styles, in fact you'd need a whole blog or book based on just this one element to discuss and cover all the subject well enough to do everyone justice. Most people - in the present day - think of mundane world fusion of styles such as Urban Trad or River Dance as what world music is and at it's best. However, it's interesting to look back at some of the trends that were present in creating this form of music.

Although there must be earlier examples of world music influences Caravan- written by Juan Tizol in 1937 - could be one of the earliest examplesthat clearly used folk music as a source, not only in it's rhythms(which developed with every incarnation), but also the use of minor harmonyand title all help to conjure up far away places. Be-bopcomposers soon picked up on names and rhythms (with even more complexharmony) such as Dizzy Gillespie's Night in Tunisia, the experiments with Machito or Mario Bauza known as Cubop. These experiments in fusing Latin rhythms with jazz probably opened musicians eyes to other possibilities. Musicians began using titles with exotic references which conjured up jazz's roots - ex : Appointment in Ghana or Khalil the Prophet - Jackie McLean, Search for the New Land - Lee Morgan or whole albums such as Tijuana Moods - Charlie Mingus and of course Africa Brass from John Coltrane. These are just a few titles that immediately come to mind, however there are literally dozens of other examples all of which (to greater or lesser degrees) touch on and integrate folk forms into the music.

When talking about world music and the development of folk forms and jazz Yusef Lateef would have a chapter all to himself. Apart from the name change William Huddleston to Yusef Lateef one only has to look at a list of his album titles to notice the world music influence. Titles such as Prayer to the East, Eastern Sounds, and Jazz 'Round the World clearly set an agenda for the music there within. What (to me) is so satisfying in Lateef's music is the deep blues feeling blended with a very individual use of instruments such as the shenai, oboe or argol. It's also interesting to see how Lateef blurs the boundary between blues, jazz and far eastern music often using 'pedals' in a very interesting way (listen to Sister Mamie below). This system imitates the same stylistic method as a blues-man such as Son House, whilst also conjuring up the idea of far eastern (or near eastern) modal music (*). Yusef Lateef also used an oboe which gave the same 'nasal' sound that many double reed instruments from the far and near east produce, but in Lateef's case he would apply these to such tunes as Love theme from Spartacus (on Eastern Sounds) or a blues from Ma Rainey See See Rider (from Live at Pep's). In fact his use of various instruments gives much of his music a folk influenced sound, but Lateef's main instrument was surely the tenor sax, and he always had a very beautiful sound. He (unlike many today) was also able to control his harmonic knowledge using only what was needed (when needed), but it always contained the essence of the blues.

Sister Mamie - from Live at Pep's (1965)

However notall musicians tried to conjure up images of early blackAmerican history, others such as Bill Smith's Folk Jazz (from 1959) were also acknowledging Americas roots in Europe, and probably one of the first breakaway 'fusion' albums especially when considering it's creation date from 1959. What's most interesting is the repertoire that Bill Smith used. Among a few gospel type titles he also plays an English folk tune, sea-shanties, and a children's melody - Greensleeves, Blow the Man Down, A-Roving and Three Blind Mice (!). However, whereas Yusef Lateef used different atmosphere's and rhythms for his music Bill Smith just kept with the standard 4 or 3 to a bar swing. However, Lateef's concept shows that not only is he interested by the melody, but also the atmosphere and rhythm, creating a real world (jazz) music. Of course Bill Smith wasn't the only one interested in European influences, others were also working along the same lines trying to develop a well rounded American folk fusion.

Jimmy Giuffre is someone who (early on) developed jazz and folk music as a style. What's striking about Giuffre's style is it's debt to Americana as a musical genre (something that guitarist Bill Frisell would continue in the 90s). Unlike Bill Smith, Giuffre didn't use 'traditional' folk tunes but created his own traditional sounding music, quite an interesting idea in itself. His compositions could well be seen in the same light as that of Aaron Copeland, a mixture of romanticism and atonality. Even when Giuffre moved away from his very accessible trios - with Jim Hall and either Bob Brookmeyer or Atlas/Brown/Pena etc - Giuffre maintained an element of European romanticism in his more experimental style as it developed into the 60s and probably explains his success in Europe whilst America struggled to understand his music at that period. Giuffre's music also contained elements of the blues, although one could argue that they were a more cerebral version. However, Giuffre like John Carter (see below) took his ideas of music much further becoming one of the founding fathers of avante-garde/third stream music.

Jimmy Giuffre Trio - Two Kinds of Blues (1956)

Other visionary musicians working in this same direction were Archie Shepp - The Magic of Juju ('67), Pharaoh Sanders - The Creator has a Master Plan (from the album Karma 1969) and Don Cherry (see below). In fact it seems that the search for African American roots inspired what could be responsible for instigating folk jazz, better known as world music, and it's fun to think that musicians searching for there own roots developed a new form of music, rather than consolidating the original source as they probably hoped. Of course the 60s and 70s were a very colourful and productive period for music and the arts in general. Cross fertilisation of material was the order of the day and everybody was trying to 'get back to their roots' in some form. Black American soul music, Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, hippies, folk clubs and coffee bars, new movements in dance and painting all helped move the arts world in new directions and especially that of integrating ethnic influences into everyday culture.

Whereas before musicians added simplistic stylistic elements to give their music a ethnic feel as the 70s approached artists started to take folk music and their own roots more seriously in academic terms. Musicians such as John Carter have been overlooked when discussing serious musical fusions of styles. His interesting 5 part series of records (no longer available) which combined the history of black Americans through music is completely unique. One could argue that Roots and Folklore: Episodes in the Development of American Folk Music - Dauwhe, Castles of Ghana, Dance of the Love Ghosts, Fields, Shadows on the Wall - is true world music even though not easily accessible in modern terms of what most people expect from 'folk fusion'. Unfortunately due to his early death Carter's music has never been written about or researched as one might have expected. Carter's music was not only experimental and intellectual but unlike music such as Anthony Braxton or Bill Dixon it finely balances avant-garde jazz and folk roots making it easily approachable.

'Dance of the Love Ghosts' - from the album of the same name (Gramavision 1987)

Finally, (for this part) Don Cherry isan interesting case of a musician that very early on successfullystarted integrating other folk forms into his music. Cherry successfully integrated many elements into his music through his world travels and interest in other cultures, integrating Tibetan chants, Griots rhythms, Indian music and general world elements. In 1978 hewould form Cadona along with Colin Walcott and Nana Vasconcelos which although was probably not the most interesting fusion group of all time it have have a huge influence on the sale of world music in jazz.

See Part II of this blog post (when I write it .. LOL) to see where the music went. Names such as Jan Garberek, ECM, John Surman, Matt Darriau or Pachora. And the list goes on....!

(*) Dewey Redman also used this technique and instrument on his music.

Peter Evans & Nate Wooley - High Society.

2011-09-23T23:06:00.000+02:00

Of course the fun of having your own blog is the chance to write what you want when you want, although one does try to keep up a certain rhythm. I just sent in my review of Peter Evans and Nate Wooley's - High Society (Carrier Records), one of their latest projects. It was as you'll see from my review below (on Free Jazz Blog) that I really enjoyed getting into this one, and my initial doubts soon melted away the more I listened to this rather intriguing record. It's amazing to think of how two trumpets - who avoid sounding like trumpets - can create such a rich texture of sounds and music (in the broadest sense of the word). Hearing this record tied in nicely with other music that I've been listening to recently and in particular Steve Lacy's solo work and somehow I was kind of reminded of his endless search for new ways to present his instrument, using the voice, clapping or just making strange duck sounds. And it is also not so often that music comes along that not only inspires but challenges in this way, giving one new ideas on what could (or can) be music. I had to smile at times whilst listening to this as I thought of various jazz blogs and journalists who would not call this either jazz or music. I also wondered what the likes of Wynton Marsalis or Kurt Rosenwinkel would make of this and I should add many of my - mainstream - musician friends would probably not be so enamoured with such a challenging album either. However it seems to me better to develop the unknown rather than perfecting the past when it comes to improvisation and sound. Here Peter Evans and Nate Wooley manage to stay away from any clichés of sound that their instruments would normally be associated with and it is only on the 5th track that the sound of the trumpet actually appears for the fist time ... even if a little modified.

Anyway read the review below to have a little idea of what I blabbing on about, I hope you get a chance to hear the album one day.

Peter Evans & Nate Wooley - High Society (Carrier Records, 2011) *****

Being a musician and playing a wide variety of music means that my family (kids and wife) are used to hearing wild sounds emanating from the hi-fi from time to time. But in certain cases I realise that maybe some music is not for wholesale consumption, and this .... is one of them! It's almost like a dream come true for a horn player (in this case trumpets) to be able to sound like Jimi Hendrix playing with feedback, however, it's more difficult to set fire to your trumpet, even with lighter fuel, you can hear Wooley and Evans had great fun making this recording. 'High Society' is as fascinating as it is unforgiving, there's no way out and no reference points to the trumpet as we know it. If you've heard Nate Wooley's Trumpet/Amplifier record then you'll already know how Wooley's starting to develop his style using this set up, here we have both Peter Evans and Nate Wooley blowing hot and cold through their trumpet/amplifier set ups.

It's almost impossible to give musical images for these tracks. Tracks such as I (track 3) make you wonder if the microphone is inside a turbine in a rocket engine, or is that the sound of something out in the desert somewhere? The two horn players use flutter tonguing, blowing, sucking, singing, spitting, banging the pistons, hitting the trumpet, it's all there. The fourth track LXVII starts like two wild animals in a fight, there are growls and screams, rattling, industrial crashes and explosions, music that's not for the faint hearted. However each track is so fascinating that you find yourself absorbed by the sounds as they change throughout each piece, each idea worked on and pushed to it's extreme and obvious conclusion. The sixth track 'XC' is a fascinating piece as .. shock horror .. you get to hear a real muted trumpet sound as it's starting point. The track develops over 13 plus minutes into a real tour de force of sounds, feedback, screams, singing and real trumpet sounds, never dull moment.

Finally I should say I was surprised at how much I enjoyed listening to this one, and for something that is rather abstract. The music which although very intense is (I found) always interesting to come back to and I'm intrigued to see how they'll develop and follow up wonderful recording. I can only finish with a often used phrase from our chief critic and editor Stef ......... Highly Recommended.

Tags for this music could be - the wind, the sea, the washing machine, car engines, radio interference, food blenders, vacuum cleaners and the list goes on!

::::

This is the last track #6 from the album it's titled XLV. There's no reason why I choose this piece except that it was the last on one on the album, which seems a good a reason as any .... don't you think?

Check out the article on Nate Wooley's Trumpet/Amplifier here.

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Sons of Bitches Brew?

2011-09-22T13:16:00.000+02:00

Miles influence vis-a-vispop and jazz, or funk and jazz had a devastating effect on some areasof this music, giving birth to many hybrid 'blacksploitation' typegroups. It also seemed to give an open message saying that jazz musicians can also make pop music, whereas in reality they cannot! In the same way Waldo De Los Rios seemed to think that classical music can be pop, although in reality it only becomes a form high kitsch, which then sells due to it's novelty value. Today hundreds (no thousands) of students in jazz schools, and worst still practising jazz musicians and teachers, still think that the word funky means playing two chords with b9s, b13s, augmented this and demented that as chord types, all on top of a back beat.

Miles Davis always craved for a recognition that was not only unnecessary but musically unhealthy and spent much of his later years producing music that verged on the edge of MOR or FM, something that his early collaborators could have never imagined. To put it bluntly, he was so busy wanting to be something that he could never be, a pop icon. Unfortunately he wasted (in my humble opinion) many years of his life trying to get recognition for, or from, the world of pop music. However, like many jazz musicians Miles did not understand that pop, like jazz, is a way of being and not something that can be easily imitated. His initial experiments in this field started with In a Silent Way but quickly developing into something far more muscular in the form of the well known Bitches Brew. Although I won't go into those albums here it's certainly interesting to see how Miles developed this area of jazz up until his initial retirement in 1975. Up until that point Miles had been keenly interested in various forms of music and particularly that of modern electronic music such as that of Karlheinze Stockhausen. It seems that he was also very open to the idea of a form of free jazz and certainly used many musicians who were developing more open forms of improvisation. Pete Cosey or Sonny Sharrock on guitars, or Keith Jarrett's use colour in his electric piano solos (an area which he developed in his 'free form' quartet with Redman, Motian and Haden) showed that Miles was open to other forms of soloing other than that of post-bop. Unfortunately when he returned in 1981 it seems that he had no more stomach for wanting to push barriers aside and was yearning more for stardom on an equal to such as Prince, The Crusaders, Earth Wind and Fire, or Michael Jackson, Sly and the Family Stone, Santana, Sting or James Brown.

Sly and the Family Stone - circa mid 70s

However it would seem that Miles' influences have touched on morerecent generations who have seen his earlier work - from his electricperiod - as a positive message. Over the years I've come across some excellent examples of the spin offfrom Bitches Brew influences from the 70s period Miles. Some examplesthat immediately spring to mind are Brownman (I think it's Nick) or French trumpet player Erik Truffaz (*), London bands Led Bib and Dog Soup all work on a vibe that brings to mind the experiments of the electric period of Miles Davis. What's also interesting to note is how these groups seem to have not wandered off into out and out commercial zone in a way Miles did, making for what in the long term a more interesting and satisfying type of jazz that retains rhythm as it's central focus but interesting harmonic colours also. Watch the Erik Truffaz concert from Avignon on Youtube to see how accessibility and art can go together.

A few months ago I wrote a few wordsabout Example Of Twelves last (it's Pt 3 of a trilogy) and latest release Things Will Be.I was so inspired by this wonderfully understated piece of music that Iimmediately decided to see what the other two parts of the puzzle wouldoffer - part one of the trilogy is called The way things are, and part 2, The way things were. Riaan Vosloo the leader (and main composer) kindly offered toforward the other two records to me as I'd been so enthusiastic to hearmore from this group. The second album which I will no doubt talk about at a later date is a wonderful lush album mixing strings and rhythm section but what I discovered on the first album was not only a pleasant musicalsurprise but also a rather interesting look at an almost modern day version of Bitches Brew.

Although the album has nothing directly to do with Miles Davis - or not that I know about - I was immediately reminded of Miles due to a very small quote from In a Silent Way. I wonder if Fulvio Sigurta (**) even realised at the time that this strong interval (G# up to F) would be so suggestive? Anyhow, from then on the music develops in a way that leads the listener through a series of beautiful soundscapes, each one connecting with the next. Part 1 Beginnings/Endings uses a series of weaving chords which somehow mirror the same ambience and scheme of In a Silent Way/It's about that time! The don't keep this as the only idea, the music drifts as in a dreamlike state, Fulvio Sigurta leading the band via gentle phrases. The music changes little by little leading in a logical way to the second section - Part 2 The Madness. This is where the music takes on a much heavier direction leaving Jonathan Spall's alto sax to lead the way with some strong soloing eventually letting the rhythm section (or really the mixing Vosloo) weave a hypnotic spell over the music. What I also find so interesting about this piece of music is the way that Riaan Vosloo has combined so many areas of music - film scores, jazz, trip hop, dub and a few others - into one long flowing piece of music.

Part 1 Beginnings/Endings II

Part 2 finishes with some wonderful clarinet playing (also Spall) in what seems like a small contemporary classical interlude, a duet with piano. However this is only a brief interlude and the trumpet brings back a post Miles atmosphere with brooding lines that are treated electronically. Another influence that although never hinted at is that of Pharaoh Sanders and maybe Alice Coltrane also, if only by the spiritual feeling that the music suggests (and the titles).

Part 3 Though lovers be lost, love shall not II

The final part 3 starts with double bass over electronically manipulated pianos and various electronica, giving an impression of a modern day raga, something that Talvin Singh has used in his interesting Indo-fusion projects. Here the listener is brought to the end of this long sonic modal voyage without really noticing .... is it possible? Riaan Vosloo does this with a very nice idea of bookending the beginning and the end with the same ideas of ethereal voices speaking over (or under) the waves of music, leaving the listener to hear the music disappear as if like a boat drifting off into the mist.

Part 2 of the trilogy to follow - The Way Things Were!

All the music is available on Impossible Ark Records.

* = it's worthwhile watching the various parts of Eric Truffaz in Avignon. I've seen him in concert and can highly recommend the band (and the man). He seems to be able to let the music develop by itself yet - like Miles - move the music in the directions needed, and when needed.
** = Listen (if the links still correct) to Flavio's latest release on Cam Jazz - here.

Music Village - 16/09/11 - Brussels.

2011-09-12T16:20:00.002+02:00

Of course one has to blow one's own trumpet (sax in my case) from time to time, why not! If you're in Brussels (Belgium) on Friday why not pop down to the Music Village for a couple of sets of hard-bop?

Every year I try and do a couple of 'straight ahead' gigs based on stuff that I like in the mainstream catalogue. This year Bruno Castellucci kindly offered to play the gig with me. I'll be accompanied by (as you'll see below) my good friends : Ron Van Rossum (piano), Bart Denolf (bass) and the wonderful Jean-Paul Estiévenart (on trumpet). Jean-Paul also plays in my Al-Orkesta project, but that's another story and CD. We'll be playing again early in 2012 for all those interested.

In the meanwhile here's the poster for the gig. Maybe see you there!

Lacy's not here, but where is he?

2011-09-08T22:43:00.000+02:00

I was moved to write this little blogpost after searching in vain for hours, days and weeks for recordings of the late Steve Lacy (1934-2004). How sad it is to find that half of his recordings are either no longer available but also difficult to obtain even if they are still in someone's catalogue. Of course if you check around Amazon or other online sales services you'll find the usual glut of mainstream albums that Lacy recorded, but not however the more interesting stuff which in general has gone 'underground'. Steve Lacy's Solo in Mandara a rare 1975 solo recording made in Japan is nowhere to be seen any more. In fact I noticed on a site (after being sold) at the price of 511$ !!!! I wonder what Steve Lacy would have thought about that? It seems sad to me that albums such as - Live: At the Unity Temple, Clinkers, Weal and Woe (£66 on Amazon UK) or the two wonderful albums with Mal Waldron - Live at Dreher, Paris 1981 Volumes 1 and 2, are either out of print or nearly impossible to buy for the average mortal. I must say that I haven't downloaded so much material before, but in the case of Lacy one only has that nowadays (the net) as a source of his work. It's sad to think that his family isn't seeing a penny of any of this, due to the rather narrow minded view of those holding the master tapes. What's even more absurd is the idea of some great record sitting in it's cover never being played because it's to rare and irreplaceable. It's like having a picture that you keep covered up - and it does happen also!

Steve Lacy's rare - Solo at Mandara ('75)

Luckily Snips : Live at Environ a wonderful live solo recording from Steve's first return to New York in the early 70's is easily available and full of wonderful music. Some people say the recording quality is not top notch, which is true when listening to his other recordings, but the music is so good there's really no excuse not to have a copy of this in your collection. The last track on side one of this double CD is called Snips. I've included a sound bite of this track so you can hear the atmosphere and the great music.

Steve Lacy - Snips : Live at Environ

Snips - Tk 7 from the above album.

What also astounds me about Lacy's work is the originality of his approach in developing his material. I must say that I have never transcribed any of his music, somehow that seems pointless, after all it's about improvisation at it's highest level. Lacy obviously didn't use a bop vocabulary either which makes his work even more interesting - no approach tones, no 2-5-1 patterns, few (if any) running scales with tensions such as flattened 9th's or augmented 13th's. There are surely a few standard ideas, but not in the conventional way that most jazz musicians use them, even the more avant-garde players (*). I notice when working from the Slonimsky Thesaurus of Scales and Patterns that you find much material that (I suspect) Steve Lacy must have studied and developed over his career, especially in his solo work. Below I've included a (long) track from Live in Mandara it's 35 minutes in length - please take time to listen to it. Here you'll hear many characteristics of Lacy's playing style, taking themes or interval sets to develop his amazing improvisations. It's one piece on the record, however you'll hear how he pauses between pieces before setting off into the next theme - listen also for the uses of multiphonics, repetition, extremes of register, slap tonguing, over-blowing, singing/growling and the rest.

Six Pieces from the Tao : Existence, The Way, Bone, Name, The Breath, Life on it's Way

It's also interesting to note whilst listening to these recordings the originality of Lacy's sound and approach. Lacy worked on the music of Thelonius Monk all his life, and also with Monk. It seems the most important lesson Monk taught Lacy was to be an original. Monk had such a truly original style - i.e. it's difficult to copy his playing without sounding exactly like him. Lacy also has a style that is also truly original and thus difficult to imitate without becoming a clone, a true compliment if ever there is one!

Not only was Steve Lacy a musician but also a thinker, that is to say his music is also about intellect. One can learn much about Lacy and his philosophy in 'Steve Lacy : Conversations - Jason Weiss' a book recommended to me by Sam Newsome another fine soprano player also influenced by the work and innovations of Steve Lacy. Jason Weiss has brought together 33 +/- interviews with the man himself from 1959 to 2004 (he also died the same year). The interviews show someone that is highly cultured, not what most people imagine when thinking of your average 'jazz musician'. Lacy certainly isn't to be classed as a jazz musician and was probably the prototype for today's clean living 'open minded' improvising artist, yes I use the term artist. His music and concepts seem to have influenced many artists. Moving to Europe in the early seventies, his interest in Oriental culture like that of John Cage seemed far ahead of it's time and his compositions often used haiku poetry for inspiration. He also combined his poetry into his pieces working with the likes of Robert Creeley or Brion Gysin (also a close friend) among others. On Hooky (Snips : Live at Environ) one hears Lacy shouting "Don't go to school, don't go to school" using it as part of the music, the rhythm of the phrase helping shape the melody that follows.

A collection of interviews with Steve Lacy spanning 45 odd years.

Finally, there seems much in Steve Lacy's work which is being forgotten by the mainstream music media. College's still only teach post-bop as 'the' music of improvisation. It is normal that whilst we ignore such important advances made by Lacy we are somehow keeping jazz and improvised music from developing into more fruitful areas. I hope that someone will one day collect together much of his vast catalogue and re-issue what to me seems an essential part of today's improvised music scene, and one of contemporary musics most important figures.

Postscript :

Although I only mention Steve Lacy's solo work one should also remember that he also worked with his groups, which I have to admit (I'm ashamed to say) I know verylittle of. I hope to remedy this in 2012!

(*) One player does come to mind is the great Lol Coxhill, a true individual in the improvising world. However, you can hear similarities between Lacy's style and Coxhill which are probably unintentional.

Mouldy Figs or just jazz?

2011-09-05T12:05:00.001+02:00

I was amazed to read this morning the fuss that's being stirred up from Kurt Rosenwinkel's Facebook post denouncing the state of jazz today. Fortunately for me I don't have Facebook, and certainly think that any posting via such a ridiculous site is a little lame, but that's another discussion. However it seems that various bloggers have moved in to give their view on the subject, and an interesting view it is. Here's the two blog-posts that inspired me to write a little something - Peter Hum and Ronan Guilfoyle (both interesting writers - and musicians - to follow on a regular basis). As I already mentioned I didn't (haven't) read the original posting that started all this off but wonder why there is so much confusion in what is and isn't good - in this case - jazz?

When I was at art college we had a class called 'value judgements' which meant discussing what is and what is not art. It was an interesting class and one that I have probably carried with me since those days as a way of accepting as much as possible. Often in the final analysis one can only say 'I don't like it' and nobody can argue with that, and if you're sensible you're open to change your opinion at a later date. The discussion being argued (about jazz) is who decides - musicians to be precise - who owns the quality control for jazz, or who sucks and who doesn't. Musicians have been arguing since ever, Louis Armstrong famously said that be-bop was Chinese music. The boppers called the old school musicians 'mouldy figs', although they had far too much respect for Louis to say the same of him. One wonders what the jazz scene was like in 1930, were there as many 'bad' musicians around as now? I wonder what Armstrong or Buddy Bolden would of thought of Nate Wooley's Trumpet/Amplifier record (I wonder what Kurt Rosenwinkel would think also)? Probably best not to ask, some people can only understand and except their own view of the world, other ideas can be very unsettling. I should add that remember that Lennie Tristano couldn't swing and was too intellectual, John Coltrane played too many notes, his music was labelled 'anti-jazz', and that Bill Haley's Rock Around The Clock was subversive music!

What is jazz anyway, and who's aloud to play it?

However, it seems Kurt Rosenwinkel's remark is based on the ability to play jazz, the ability to make it good and look after it (?). Dwayne Burno, another musician who has strong opinions about quality control, seems to agree with KR and angrily says 'most jazz sucks today .... etc' (one should read what he says as it's too long to quote here). One has to wonder who sucks, and why? It is true, as Ronan Guilfoyle points out, that nowadays everybody thinks they should record and sell CDs, due to the facility in accessing recording technology, either on their own label or via the net. With the death of the music industry there is no more quality control -I'm not sure it was always 'good control'. But what frightens me more is the attitude of labelling good and bad, to swing or not, this is jazz and that isn't? The likes of King Crimson, Jimi Hendrix, J.S.Bach, Steve Reich or Gang Starr have - to name only a few - all had wide ranging influence over the direction of jazz, or should that be bad influence? Should we blame these influences or praise them and accept that this is a natural process in the development of jazz and other musics? Does that mean that we should be pure to the cause of jazz and if you listen to anything else then you should immediately remove the term jazz music(ian) from any references to you or your groups, not teach in any jazz type schools and the rest? I hope not!

I suspect that Kurt Rosenwinkel's remark was made without the intent to produce soooo much talk around the blogsphere as it has. What is probably more interesting is the reaction it has made and the rabid bile that it has inspired some people to write over what remains a very cloudy area as to who can and who can't. Finally James Hale says in a response to the Facebook post :

'.... young listeners who have wondered what they should check out in jazz. Maybe they just shouldn't bother; they can never be as good as Rosenwinkel or Burno. Someone better is always going to be judging you.'

If I understand him correctly I don't agree, after all that's exactly the point be your own voice and nobody can touch you, something that cannot be taught in a school. Maybe my Value Judgements class was right?

Footnote : If you're wondering who the soprano saxophonist is in the skip (and what he's doing), it's the great Lol Coxhill. Lol is one of the icons of the improvised music world and a bastion of self expression, he would be completely amazed that anyone would want to be anything else than themselves!

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Apple Mac - a few complaints?

2011-09-01T10:20:00.004+02:00

I wouldn't normally write a post about computer related problems as I'm actually more interested by music and other issues. However, after spending a whole evening on a bug in the computer I thought about writing this little 'open letter' to Apple Macintosh which I've often thought could be a great company, but somehow isn't, even thought they invented the iPhone, iPods etc.

I'm rather interested with the announcement by Steve Jobs of his retirement from Apple. Will anything change in this rather closed community? Even though I'm one of the Mac owners (in April 2011 Mac had 5% of the market share - PC 92%) I can't say much for the company except that I enjoy using it's operating system. Apart from that there's not much that really makes Mac any better than Microsoft.

The other night I had a small (still unresolved) problem with my Safari (4.1.3) browser which won't keep it's cookies, causing me to constantly sign in to all pages such as Twitter, Hotmail, Blogs etc. I was reminded exactly how user 'unfriendly' Apple is when it comes to their clients. One of the first things I noticed when becoming a member of the Apple clan is their pretence at being a comunity, but with no real leader - Steve Jobs is just 'Mr Inventive', he doesn't care about what the average Mac users 'user experience' really is, a little like a politician and a citizen - they're both out of touch with reality! If you have a problem then you're on your own, there is no support, rather strange when you think of how much you pay for your computers operating system. In fact there's very little in the way of feedback from the company itself, it's impossible to contact them and have any real dialogue. Will Tim Cook make a change in the way Apple carries itself as an arrogant company with no transparency and who refuse to address their clients questions and problems? I expect not, but who knows.

Some of the issues that I feel strongly about are actually quite simple things that could be easily remedied. I also feel that by addressing these issues Apple Macintosh would be a much stronger competitor on the market. Some questions (or examples) of a more market/user friendly policy could be as such :

a) Why does Mac insist on trying to sell 'Apple Care' at an extremely expensive price? Would it not be more logical to include this in all purchases of their products? Some people working at Apple mentioned that they don't sell very many Apple Care products, due to it's ridiculous pricing. My thoughts on the matter are that if one included it - all computers at Mac would be guaranteed for 3 years - it would be an excellent selling point. After all don't Mac believe in their own products enough to put their money where their mouths are?

b) What's all the pricing about? How comes different products are priced differently depending on the continent? I find it rather strange and most un-ethical that (as an example) a Macbook Pro costs :
- In the USA :1199$ (832€ - on the day I converted the $)
- In Europe : 1199€
- In the UK : £999 (1130€ - on the day I converted the £)

Notice the difference of 332€ between the Dollar and the Euro, how come Apple has to charge the difference (at a higher level) to European users, do we deserve it? The UK price is a little more difficult to understand due to the fluctuation of the pound. But I find the fact that the Euro price and Dollar price are exactly the same, creepy almost. Are Apple so lazy they just thinks of a figure, and then place a dollar sign or Euro after it? Just from the €/$ figures above there's a difference of 44%(*), how can it be justified? I should also add that you CANNOT buy you Apple products over the net from the USA to Europe although I suspect this may also be a international thing, however I imagine Apple doesn't want this either.

c) How can a company exist without real online support? After all Macintosh do make computers, don't they? I find it interesting that there is NOWHERE to actually contact Apple (directly) about their products such as Logic, Garage Band, Safari, iPods, iTunes etc. You are 'advised' to go to the Apple discussions forums on their site to solve any problems you may have! Isn't this a little sloppy for something that you pay for? Imagine feeling ill and being told by your doctor to go and find the problem on a chat-room somewhere! Or that the car you bought isn't working, or the phone no longer functions, your electricity is off .. and then being told to "look it up on the web". To me it's simply unacceptable, I can't understand why European law doesn't oblige them to have a service, and that doesn't mean taking your computer into a shop (and leaving it with them for weeks, and pay to have someone look at it).

d) Why won't Apple tell us what's coming and when, why the secrecy? Can't they interact with their customers on the development of their products? This way we as the consumer can plan our purchases a little more correctly, and that means less waste in this so called eco-friendly age. As an example - recently (well a few years ago) Apple did away with firewire without telling anyone beforehand. What did that mean? Well, Mac had been pushing Firewire products for years - useful for back-up media, film and music software (among others) - and many people had spent much money on these products only to find from one day to the next that it had disappeared, with no explanation - Apple decided that they didn't owe answers to anybody. They have continued it but in a rather modified version on certain computers.

e) In the chat-room forum on Apple's own site NO negative comments or criticisms of Mac and it's policies, products, updates and changes, are allowed - they're deleted by an administrator almost immediately! Rather odd I find for a so called 'alternative' company that is meant to be used by alternative thinking people, the so called hippy generation. Why can't Apple accept negative criticism and use it in a positive way to develop their products - hopefully to suit our needs and not their pockets.

f) etc, etc .......... I'm sure if you use a Mac you can add quite a few of you're own complaints.

It will be interesting to see if Macintosh can keep a hold on their market in the next few years. I suspect that they will have a hard time unless they're prepared to compromise, and even now it maybe too late. Other people are starting to make 'Apple' products, but cheaper and better. The iPhone market is up in the air, and Apple wish to keep hold of it, can they? The Hackintosh is already creaping into the market, and of course Apple Macintosh wish to stop it. What is a Hackintosh you may ask? Well, PC's are basically computers that run with Microsoft Windows or Linux (a freeware operating system). They are cheaper because there are dozens of different makes on the market that all have Microsoft system licences, and of course have to compete between each other for a slice of the market. This doesn't always mean quality, but it does keep the prices down. Hackintosh is basically the same, why not have other computers running OS X it would be more competitive and would maybe help Apple to become more transparent?

For the moment I'll carry on using my Mac until it breaks down (it already has problems), but after that I have to start wondering is it worth it, will Apple start listening, or do I follow the Hacks and get on with my own agenda?

Interesting Hackintosh links :

How Hackintosh a Dell Mini 9 into an OS X Netbook.
Hackintosh.com
Install OS X onto your Hackintosh PC

(*) Maths is not my strong point, so the percentage is my rough calculation.

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Examples of Twelves - Things Will Be

2011-07-07T18:21:00.002+02:00

What a pleasure to hear Things Will Be, the third (*) and (from what I've read) final part to the 'Example of Twelves' trilogy, released this month on Impossible Ark Records. It's really refreshing to hear music which although not 'avante-garde' or musically ground breaking, does actually defy easy categorisation. Music often fits easily into one category or another and groups are happily surprised to discover their record has had more far ranging influence than was originally intended. Who would of imagined in the 60s that rock music would change the direction of jazz forever? Some people (listeners and musicians alike) never really got over this hybrid change in their sacred swinging sounds, others jumped in right up to their necks. What has emerged many years later is the possibility of styles that can comfortably cross-over different genres with studio techniques opening up a large palette of sounds and colours for any musician who's ready to learn.

You might be wondering what all of the above has to do with the album at hand Examples of Twelves - Things Will Be ...? The answer is in part due to the diversity of bassist leader and composer Riaan Vosloo's vision of music, his ability take from many musical languages, and popular culture in general, yet at no point hand back pale imitations of any one style. The compositions on this record are subtly influenced by the cultures of modern dance musics such as funk, rap or reggae, free jazz, film music, and a healthy slice of film noire and jazz references which show influences ranging from Louis Malle to Coppola's 'One from the Heart'. The result being a highly listenable yet musically challenging ride through seven varied tracks.

What gives this record it's possibility to cross these stylistic boundaries is the wise use of instrumentation - sax, bass clarinet, flute, trumpet, piano, fender rhodes, bass and drums, arranged (orchestrated in fact) in such a way as to give a large ensemble sound when needed. Riaan Vosloo's experience in working with Nostalgia 77 also means that when the music needs to be 'funky', it can, and with the help of Tim Giles (Drums) and Ross Stanley (Fender) the music can go in multiple directions as needed and with the array of musicians different featured soloists appear throughout the music. The opening The Webs We Weave (Nocturne), one of the longest pieces on the LP, runs you through various themes which have a pastoral feeling at moments, due in part to the use of bass clarinet, trumpet, sax, flute and piano. However as the music takes off room is left for solos over a grooving riff. Lost People the second track cleverly uses a fine mixture of trumpet and bass clarinet in what could be a contemporary classical piece, launching into a fine heavy beat that the likes of Elbow would be proud of. The third and forth tracks are Please Hold Pt 1 and 2, Part 1 being a sort of solo piano meditation based around the theme that is yet to be revealed and very delicate it is, but when Part 2 arrives you start to really hear the nod towards what could make a beautiful film soundtrack theme. Fulvio Sigurta deserves a special mention as he manages (for my money) to play the theme beautifully without adding much or wandering off into other inflections at all. Track five has jazz, dub, and much more to keep it up in the air ..... you can listen below yourselves.

The View from the Castle - Tk 5.

To my ears there seems to be a sort of suite like quality to the running order, however I'm not sure this is the real intention. On The Glass Bead Game (tk 6) there is a similar unwinding of various themes - as on The Webs We Weave (Tk 1) - and is probably what gives the feeling of a suite. Here Matthew Bourne gets a chance to show his avant-jazz chops to great effect and Mark Hanslip also manages to ride out some choppy rhythms playing his usual dense melodic lines to great effect. But everyone on this album sounds excellent and it's easy to see how you can come back to this release to listen again and again to this music.

The last track (7) Miniature 2 another piano meditation, leaving us with a melancholic feeling of an unanswered question. In fact the only thing that's really missing is that one almost wonders if any film credits will roll by.

Riaan Vosloo - Bass (Arrangements and compositions)
Tim Giles - Drums
Ross Stanley - Fender Rhodes
Matthew Bourne - Piano
Mark Hanslip - Tenor sax
James Allsopp - Bass Clarinet, Tenor sax
Fulvio Sigurta - Trumpet
Catherine Shrubshall - clarinet
Tori Freestone - flute

Important Note - This is a limited edition of 400 LPs with hand printed covers ...... so don't wait if you're tempted as it's now or never. Well, for all of you that read this too late it is also available in digital download also. For information on this release contact - info@impossiblearkrecords.co.uk

* = I was nicely impressed by this lovely album and am certainly curious to hear how we actually got to this point in the music. I'll bring you up to date with the first two records later in the summer when I've had time to hear them, and of course absorb a little of the music. Of course if you're curios you should also check out the other work these musicians are involved in such as the Twelves and Nostalgia 77 to mention just two!

Forgotten Classics

2011-07-02T03:02:00.006+02:00

I just had to post this, a forgotten classic in the experimental film genre. Here's a film of Zbigniew Rybczyński which I've often discussed with people when talking about experimental film techniques. He made some excellent films including a great 'remake' of the Battleship Potempkin story, I'll see if I can find it somewhere on the net and add it to this post. In the meanwhile I hope you enjoy this original film - just think of the technical problems - one of his early 1980s masterpiece.

Just watch (and follow) a few of the characters, the boy with the ball, the man changing the light bulb, the couple making love, and most of all the lady at the end who takes the original ball that starts the whole movie ........!

Here's a bit of the film where Rybczyński uses scenes from The Battleship Potempkin movie. It seems that this was made after the Tango movie (1987) and of course one sees how he uses the same style as in his previous work.

Of course his style was so original that he started being used to make early pop videos, Nona Hendryx being one example that springs to mind. In 1986 he also made film of John Lennon's Imagine (see below. I also seem to remember an excellent version of the the journal that Kafka wrote in connection with his father(?). I think that the film was shot in one movement, which in those days was an amazing achievement. Anyhow, if you look at the wiki entry (link above) you can see all the work he did since. Try cut and pasting some of the titles into YouTube or Vimeo as I'm sure there's plenty more interesting stuff to see.

Joëlle Léandre - SOLO (CD, DVD and book)

2011-06-14T12:09:00.006+02:00

Well, it's been a long time coming, or should I say it took me a long time? A book, a CD and a DVD so much information it's difficult to know where to begin with such an object. The first thing to mention is that the original book was published back in 2008 in French and without the extra addition of the CD and DVD. You can read an English review of the book on Free Jazz Blog here. Anyhow the best thing to do when looking over this generous package is to split the objects up into their simple components, and since the CD and DVD are actually quite short (but long enough) its easy to run through the basics of what you'll get to see and hear when buying this set.

The CD (38 minutes) :

Is a set of bass solos (five in all) recorded in Piednu, France, 2005. The five improvisations are Joëlle Léandre in full flight doing what she does best ..... improvise. I must say that although I've seen Joëlle Léandre in concert many years ago it was an interesting re-discovery to hear the music after reading the book with it's various ideas. You get to hear all the different techniques and sounds that Ms Léandre incorporates in her music on this CD. She shouts, talks, sings and groans all the time plucking or bowing her instrument, sometimes very tender and romantic and at others it's violent, loud or muscular. I particularly enjoyed the use of here voice which on one track (Tk3) sounds like an American Indian who incants poems or songs from some ancient ritual. There's also her beautiful bowing sound which is pure and strong, only possible from someone completely in control of their instrument, and through years of practising and honing of ones art. It's often small details such as this that we don't get to hear when listening to the double bass in an ensemble, whereas here everything is audible. For me the CD was very intimate which made it a wonderful listen, most enjoyable.

For those who don't know Joëlle Léandre this is probably an excellent place to start. Along with other improvisers of her field who create new sounds from their instruments, unexpected noises which one wouldn't always associate or expect coming (in this case) from the double bass. In Joëlle Leandre's case it's quite an extraordinary mixture of sounds, Tk4 takes you through a journey of harmonics produced by her bow, voice that rasps in rhythm to accompany the bow, tapping with fingers/bow that produce random beats and sound. How does she do it ...... ?

The DVD (33 minutes) :

And this is where you discover what's actually going on. The DVD is a set of 4 improvisations from Guelph Jazz Festival, Canada, 2009. Here you see a little of what's been heard on the CD (although not literally), and you get to see how Joëlle works with her bass and extraordinary it is. If you don't play such an instrument you'll be surprised at how visual her music is - i.e. she doesn't just stand there! There's total fusion with her instrument and often one is surprised at how roughly (it seems) she plays the bass. Stretching the strings like elastic bands (do they ever break?), or tapping the wood to make the knocking sounds you hear on the CD. Probably to get the most out of these discs it would be fun to listen to the CD and then watch the DVD to get the full impact of what is going on.

I should add that although there is some information printed on the discs, there isn't (or I didn't see it) any detailed information printed in the book about the music - that you get to see and hear. Of course it's probably not that important as the music in both cases is excellent, however it would have been a nice 'user friendly' addition which would of helped one enjoy the experience a little more.

The Book :

I found was interesting if a little disorganised, but that might have been the style intended or maybe the way the translator decided to present it. The way the book is presented is almost - in my way of thinking - like a stream of consciousness, leaving out the questions or remarks of the hidden interviewer, not unlike the works of Tony Parker. Joëlle Léandre talks about various subjects and often repeats ideas and names without really adding too much information. Her ideas are lucid and interesting yet at moments one wishes you were there and could ask her "what else about this subject ....?" She mentions Evan Parker, Derek Bailey, Bert Turetsky, John Cage, in fact everybody involved in this scene, yet often with little else to say about the meeting, the person or whatever the subject that inspired this name conjured up. However as the book progresses I found plenty of interesting bits and thoughts in general. Chapter 1 - First Sounds/First Lessons is a fascinating look into a certain period of time when Europe was open to new musical ideas and a sort of anarchy (and openness) which has now sadly disappeared. Much of what the loft scene of the seventies represented is ever present in the words of Joëlle, due to the cross fertilisation of ideas which came from that - Steve Lacy, Barre Phillips etc.

Chapter 7 - Poetics/Politics - struck a particular strong chord for me as she talked about the fickleness of the present day system and how the more experimental side of music is not really represented in our theatres, festivals and clubs. She talks at length about recording improvised music and why it's important and the role of women (or the lack of) in music and in general the improvised music scene. This certainly makes for interesting reading and a subject that could be easily enlarged on as she comes up with some very interesting remarks on reasons for the lack of women in this area, and their roles.

All in all the book makes for an interesting read even if at times a little frustrating. It's very easily read due to it's light style which is almost informal, and in fact you can imagine sitting listening to Joëlle Léandre chatting away with a glass of wine after a concert somewhere. All you need to do after buying the book, hearing the CD and watching the DVD is to go out and see the woman live at a concert near to you. This way you'll get the complete experience, it'll certainly be well worth it.

If you're interested by this package don't hesitate and you can get purchasing details from the Kadima Collective site here. I didn't find it on Amazon FR/UK, but I'm sure a quick mail to JC Jones at Kadima will be able to help you find a copy somewhere near you.

Enharmonics, are you out there?

2011-06-09T01:20:00.016+02:00

Bosanquet's Enharmonic Harmonium

I'd love to hear from any musician (especially violins players) who could send me recordings - in context - of the difference enharmonically between Gb/F# (and of course other possible notes). In a dinner table discussion last night a friend mentioned that violinists differentiate between the sharps and flats. That surprised me, although of course I have to agree that technically this is the case, and that the reason why it's not standard thinking is due in part to the introduction of the well tempered scale.

I would also suggest that if this really is the case I'm surprised that more composers don't spend more time writing Gb(') or F#(') to define the difference. The same thing should be applied to ALL notes as there is in this case an enharmonic difference between all notes. I of course quickly checked this with a few professional violin players whom said there WAS a difference, although some seemed unsure of whether they used it or not, others seemed quite sure. A saxophonist friend of mine also suggested that we probably also played that way. However talk is one thing and I'd be interested to hear a piece played with and without those differences. If anybody out there has some real practical experience of this I'd be most interested to hear from them, especially if we could add in some musical examples!

Delegates at the 1932 Arabic Music Conference in Cairo.

After having spent several years playing Arabic classical music my experience is that many players 'believe' in the difference yet cannot consistently play 'it/them'. The Arabic music system has smaller intervals of a quarter tone built into it, yet the conference of Cairo 1932 could not agree on these differences (intervals/pitches) which is interesting for a music which uses 1/4 tones (on a daily basis). Reading the notes taken from the conference it seems that many musicians were not able to agree on the exact difference, however most could agree on perfect intervals such as the 3rd, 4th and 5th. The Azerbaijany musicologist Jahangir Selimkhanov once told me that due to the development of European systems, Azerbaijan had started to loose all notions of smaller divisions which were normally applied to the Persian scale (Mugham) systems*.

Meanwhile back at Enharmonics again ......

A normal enharmonic keyboard only has 17 keys as it adds two notes each time for C#/Db, D#/Eb etc. However it seems that the difference doesn't count, as I understand it, between B and C, although I'm not sure why. Apparently the first example of a keyboard purpose built for this enharmonic system was Nicolas Vicentino (1511-1575?). He actually built a keyboard which had 36 keys per octave, the problem being that you need to double the C# key and have both C# and Db etc, although I'm not sure where he added the other keys. I notice that various other people built systems with 77 keys for 4 octaves, which by my calculation makes 19.25 keys per octave???? Curiously I wondered if people had actually gone further with this idea and it seems that a certain Friedrich Suppig published in 1722 one of the definitive works for an instrument with an enharmonic keyboard. The Fantasia of the Labyrinthus Musicus, a multi-sectional composition that makes use of all 24 keys (like Bach), and is written especially for a keyboard with 31 notes per octave and uses pure major thirds - which I imagine starts to get into the difference between E# and F one assumes. I couldn't find a recording of what must be a fascinating work, however I did find an interesting article here written by John Charles Francis. If you're interested the document is freely download-able and is certainly an interesting and tantalising read.

Enharmonics are not unique to classical music, folk music and general popular song (meaning what we sing to ourselves - children's songs, folk melodies etc) all have this element, although intuitively used. In previous centuries one major problem whilst collecting examples of folk melodies meant that 'trained' musicians assumed (wrongly) that slight inflections such as enharmonic differences, where in fact due to poor voices, or just stupidity (!) and so often transcribed the melody into a 'well tempered' system. Gradually collectors and other musicians realised that these inflections were in fact an important part of the music. The likes of Bartok or Vaughan Williams spent many hours collecting and transcribing such music, although whether they kept those exact pitches in the newly composed material that came from such work I'm not sure. Nowadays places such as the Cecil Sharp House house large collections of field recordings of singers and instrumentalists from previous eras, and musicians spend hours copying exactly each different pitch change from these valuable recordings.

As a musician (and conservatory educated) I'm certainly interested in the idea of enharmonics and their implications, although I remain sceptical that classical musicians 'naturally' play that way, unless of course you actually ask it to be used - i.e. as in micro-tonal composition. My instrument the saxophone is not in tune (well tempered) and playing in tune is one of the first things to learn on that instrument. It is certainly difficult to forget your natural sense of pitch, which in my case seems to be slightly to a sharper sound, and it is probably this natural enharmonic pitching which enables true musicians to have an individual voice. A good example of this would be Jackie McLean who was known for his slightly 'out of tune' sound. However, when playing in an ensemble situation he blended perfectly. It takes many years of embouchure training to keep the sax in pitch with other instruments, and I often find that the ear makes you play certain notes flatter or sharper in various situations. Whilst playing with other people you of course have to make adjustments to their sense of pitch, although many musicians pride themselves on being 'in tune'. Interestingly enough Ornette Coleman once remarked (quite correctly) that he wondered who had decided what was in tune and what was out of tune.

At this present time I'm working on solo saxophone improvisations which include different pitch bends and of course overtones which are rarely exact pitches. In overtone chords certain notes are often 1 ' (comma) sharper/flatter, although it's difficult to determine exact pitches. However after last nights discussion as mentioned above I'll be all the more intrigued to pay attention to the enharmonic possibilities and of course will be keeping my eyes open for recordings that use this in a traditional context.

Oh, the image at the top of this article is a Harmonium developed by Bosanquet, an English scientist and musicologist who was interested in this type of idea. He developed (see the link) a harmonium that actually played the enharmonic system. Yet, if I understand correctly, he had to make a few compromises to fit the idea into his keyboard. He also wrote a treatise (1875?) on musical intervals and temperament which I believe is still available if you're interested in that sort of detail.

*= I'll try to get some sort of verification of that from him in the next few weeks, maybe a guest post.

Postscript : I found this book which would certainly be a good read :

Enharmonic instruments and music, 1470-1900.
Revised and translated studies. CD included.
Latina, Il Levante Libreria Editrice, 2008.
ISBN 978-88-95203-14-0

The link for the site is here.

Nate Wooley - Trumpet/Amplifier

2011-05-30T10:25:00.000+02:00

As usual it's fun writing up reviews for Free Jazz Blog especially because you get to hear so much music that you'd not normally buy. Now when I say 'not normally buy' I don't mean I wouldn't spend the money on it. Of course one of the biggest problems in discovering new sounds is 1) have the money to spend and 2) discovering new LPs/CDs to buy. Of course it's easy just to buy everything, but if you have to organise your finances (which are probably not endless) it's probably better to buy chosen products. In fact a third element comes into playing/listening - time! Yes, it's no good buying things that you'll never have time to listen to. Oddly enough this is where I can't get my head round the idea of the digital revolution and the whole downloading industry, especially when many people don't pay for it. If I look on my iTunes I'm surprised to see only 13.5 days of music. However I'm not a good indication - I mostly buy CDs and LPs - but when I see some peoples systems they have a years worth of music? When do they have time to listen to it, after all that's 24 hours a day and one has to assume that if you listen to it only half the day it's already ........ etc?

Anyhow I'm really here to talk about the music that I discover via reviewing music and today it's a brief update on Nate Wooley's latest offering. I'd put a link to Nate's website but he doesn't update it - he admitted to me that he should get himself organised on that level. Below is the review posted on Free Jazz Blog and below I'll add a few bits to the whole thing, there's also a mini review of the concert where I saw Nate perform the piece here.

Nate Wooley's LP cover for Trumpet/Amplifier

Nate Wooley - Trumpet/Amplifier (Smeraldina-Rima 2011) *****

This is one of the strangest records I've listened to in a while, yet it's also an easy record to give 5 stars to simply because what you hear defies any expectations of what a solo trumpet record, even with an amplifier, would or should sound like. It's this second element, the amplifier, which defines the outcome of Nate Wooley's sound explorations. I use the expression 'sound exploration' as what you hear on this record is anything but music in conventional terms, more an exploration of trumpets sonic possibilities. Wooley investigates the various sounds produced (and not normally heard), brought to the fore via the amplifier, a kind of microscopic sound-view of a brass instrument. Others before have also found new directions on which to experiment such as Evan Parker, Joelle Leandre, Derek Bailey, or more recently trumpeter Alex Boney, and it seems that Nate Wooley is following in the same direction, looking to find new ways of using his instrument.

As for the LP itself. Side One has two tracks : 1) Trumpet A, 2) Trumpet B. Side Two, one track titled quite simply 'Amplifier'. I can imagine looking at this you wonder if it's possible to keep ones attention throughout, and if so are the tracks that different. The answer in both cases is 'yes, no problem'. The opening track takes you a short while to enter into and understand what you're actually listening to, but once you've 'caught on' the rest is just 'sit back and listen'. Even if the sounds are abstract to begin with, little by little you hear Nate Wooley's thinking process unfold as he uses both sound and rhythm in these improvisations which at times sound like early computer generated sound. In fact whilst watching a performance of this music I noticed he not only blows into the trumpet, but sometimes spits, blows at, talks, hits, and sings into his instrument, a more physical approach than the standard playing technique. The three tracks passed by as if in the blink of an eye and I ended up placing the needle back at the beginning as if to confirm what I'd heard, after all did I just hear a trumpet record where no actually brass (musical) note was sounded?

I can recommend this album to all who are interested by new sounds, techniques and their possibilities. Of course if you're into the sound experiments of the likes of Schaeffer, Stockhausen, or even certain moments of Supersilent etc, you'll be quite comfortable with this music, like old friends. I'd love to hear how Wooley and Paul Lytton combine these sonic possibilities in there duo CD reviewed elsewhere. One should note that this is a limited edition of 495 LPs, so if you're interested you better get your copy whilst it's available.

As Stef would say ..... highly recommended!

To add a little to this post I would really like to encourage people to go and see this 'type' of music. As I mention in the article concerning the loft scene etc, it's sad that only a few people get to witness such music and also an indication of a cities artistic awareness. Henry Threadgill mentions in a recent interview with Ethan Iverson (Do the Math).
Threadgill says this :

I was thinking yesterday about these peoples' blogs, you know, and reviews and stuff talking about records, records, records. When's the last time you saw something about a live performance? I'm not just talking about jazz, I'm talking about all music. The most powerful experience you ever have in your life is a live experience.

And he's partly right - I'll write a new post about this statement in the weeks to come as it's a little short sighted. Of course nowadays some people actually create records, never to be seen performed just heard, however some of the most thrilling moments are to be found in live performance.

Wadada Leo Smith - Explains

2011-05-27T10:48:00.003+02:00

Here's a series of video from the (in)famous YouTube with Wadada Leo Smith explaining some of his life and musical ideas. I'm posting this really just to make it easier to watch (for me?) in series, but also because it's a good way of highlighting another one of the unsung heroes of music - another being Henry Threadgill. Actually you could fill a hundred blogs with people that deserve recognition, or is it the other way round a 1000 blogs with people that have recognition, but shouldn't! Anyhow, that's not important here, and not today anyhow. I just thought to place these here in easy reach of the passer buy who maybe tempted to take some time out to watch this documentary about what seems like a very warm and honest musician. Enjoy :

::: Part 1 :::

::: Part 2 :::

::: Part 3 :::

::: Part 4 :::

Les Ateliers Claus - Sunday Afternoon.

2011-05-23T13:37:00.009+02:00

I was inspired to write a quick blog post today after attending the Sunday afternoon session at the Atelier Claus - here in Brussels. A friend of mine had been saying, quite rightly, how little we try to get things to happen in Brussels. It is almost a sign of how the scene here in Belgium is not really pushing at the boundaries. There are few, if any, small 'loft' type gigs where the musicians in general are paid practically nothing. However they do make music, and maybe it's true to say that a well developed loft scene reflects on the health of a city's music and art scene in general? When one thinks of Steve Lacy's famed loft gigs back in the 70s it showed how music such as his was really not allowed in many clubs, or one could say they didn't really program that type of music. The same is apparent nowadays also with many places sticking to more commercial programs which unfortunately gradually numbs the general population into believing that 'that' is all there is to see.

Steve Lacy at Zabo's '83

Photo and copyright Jack Handy

In Brussels there are one or two places that still try and promote something new - by that one should understand 'new' as "we're trying something out". The Ateliers Claus (not really a loft as such) does try to help and develop the more underground music scene, as does (did) the Magasin 4, although it's now become a more 'metal and rock' type venue.

A special mention should go to Fred Donche and Frederik Leroux who are also trying to get some new sounds and ideas across to the public. They've started holding sessions known as Karel Ball, sessions based around experimentation and development of sound manipulation. The music is always interesting and if you pass via their site you can see a few videos of the work in progress. They hope to also develop their handmade recordings which is becoming an important way to get more underground music out to be heard, almost like coded documents which were passed around in periods of repression.

In the meanwhile this was meant to be a post about the Sunday session at Les Ataliers Claus so here goes (in short). It was great to get a chance to see some interesting music on Sunday with these three acts as seen below. The first two were fun to hear although if you need a chord change from time to time, then this is not your thing. I did wonder in the Mountains set what would most harmony teachers make of all of this? After all what they did (and well) was basically build up one chord through loops and live guitars. At times one wondered how a tune with no tonic, yet only one tonality could possibly end! Oubys on the other hand was more up my street with (as described below) a more Tangerine Dream or Kluster sound akin to that of Hans-Joachim Roedelius. The waves of sound washed over the public who sat quietly enjoying the sensation (me too). And finally the most interesting part was Nate Wooley who performed with his trumpet and amplifier (and that's how it's billed). If you think you know what a trumpet sounds like then this was for you. Nate blew not only into his trumpet but AT his trumpet, the amplifier picking up the sounds and then magnifying them. The result being anything but what one expects from this brass instrument. I use the word magnify as when one places something so close under a magnifying glass you are often astounded at the details that make up such an object. This was the effect given by the use of the amplifier. If you're interested there's an excellent LP (no CDs) of this music which can be found here from Smeraldina-Rima. There will be a review of the record posted soon of this excellent release either here or on Free Jazz Blog .... or both!

I should add that the texts under the pictures are from the press release and are NOT my property. However I found that they sum up each artist well and I imagine it's as they wish to be seen.

OUBYS is a one man ambient project from Hasselt, Belgium. The force behind Oubys is Wannes Kolf, whose music is made with live improvisations, electronic treatment and field recordings. Influenced by early kraut legends Faust, Can and ambient guru Brian Eno, this music has a nice sense of subterrenean depth and a pulsating progression. He just released the stellar ‘Terra Incognita’ LP on the newly founded Testtoon Records.

MOUNTAINS is Brendon Anderegg and Koen Holtkamp, founders of the Apestaartje label in 1999. A love of sculpting sound in front of an audience is at the heart of Mountains. They seamlessly blend pastoral electronic sounds with both field recordings and a plethora of acoustic instruments. The resulting soundscapes are broad in scope and rich in detail. The effect is incredibly sublime and hypnotic as the sounds slowly wrap themselves around each other and alter themselves in the mind of the listener. Within their realm of experimentation, they share similarities with Fennesz’s guitar ambient or the 12K aesthetic but regularly cross over into psychedelic and kosmische (Harmonia, Cluster, Popol Vuh) territories.

NATE WOOLEY (b. 1974) grew up in a Finnish-American fishing village in Oregon. He has spent the rest of his life trying musically to find a way back to the peace and quiet of that time by whole-heartedly embracing the space between complete absorption in sound and relative absence of the same. Nate currently resides in Jersey City, NJ and performs solo trumpet improvisations as well as collaborating with such diverse artists as Anthony Braxton, Paul Lytton, John Zorn, Fred Frith, Wolf Eyes, Akron/Family, David Grubbs, C. Spencer Yeh, ...

Other small clubs (not really lofts) that are trying to develop a more interesting scene are the Hot Club De Gand and the El Negocito. One could also maybe include the JazzOlder sessions. (click here and follow the links).

Motif - Facienda (it's a lot of music!)

2011-05-18T10:45:00.000+02:00

What's great fun about getting to write for Free Jazz Blog is that you get to hear an awful lot of music, much of which you probably wouldn't have bought in the first place, after all there's only so much money in my pocket (and yours also I suspect). And what's more is that you (often) receive a copy of the CD your reviewing yet the music is so interesting you end up buying a hard copy for your own collection. Yes, it does happen to me at least and this is one such album. It's also one that got the readers at the blog reacting to the 3½ star review written by the blog director Stef. It's certainly difficult to sum up and write about such albums - a 3 CD box set covering from 2007 to 2010 - and as always we don't always agree (luckily), nor do the readers. So here's the review I was writing for Free Jazz Blog except Stef wrote his a little quicker than I ... and believe me there's an awful lot of music in there to write about!

Motif - Facienda (JazzLand 2011)

What a mammoth task to present and review such a sprawling work as this. A 3CD (21 tracks) box set which covers concerts and studio work from another top Norwegian jazz unit from 2007 to 2010. Motif is the compositional baby of bassist Ole Morten Vågen a prolific writer and player who seems to be very active on the Nordic scene. The music of Motif is a brilliant mixture of improvised and composed, probably even more developed than their label-mates 'Atomic' (a favourite on this blog). Many people talk about the way Ole Morten Vågen mixes classical, jazz and folk together in the compositions, also true for the musicians on here who draw from such diverse areas for their own improvisations. You're just as likely to be reminded of Keith Jarrett or Dewey Redman, as Misha Mengleberg and Evan Parker. In fact it's in part this which for me makes the record so interesting the music doesn't let itself be pigeon holed in one area although I should add that this doesn't make for a confusing mixture, the compositions and improvisations really flow easily between styles. What makes Motif different from Atomic is the writing style which for me (at least) is less immediate (catchy themes) and isn't such a bad thing as often the compositions take time to unfold themselves. As anyone knows who's a wine fanatic (such as I), the first sip is often not the whole story, it takes time for the flavours to reveal themselves.

The box set has various line ups due to the 3 year period that the music covers (see below for complete details). The first CD represents the group as it is today and is a studio album. The second CD is a special expanded line up, a live concert that includes guitar and vibes along with an extra sax and a violin (not on all tunes). CD 3 is a collection of concerts from the 2007 Molde Jazz Festival, The Victoria in Olso and also the Pit Inn, Tokyo both 2009.

Die Kunst (TK 5 - CD 1)

The first CD is probably the most developed in terms of composition and improvisation and it seems this is a direction that the group is now moving towards. It also has the new trumpet player Eivind Lønning who now replaces the original member Mathias Eick. Lønning has to my ears a slightly more modern approach to playing, incorporating several extended techniques into his soloing such as half valves, flutter tonging and the likes. Strangely the album seemed on first hearing almost laid back in approach, however after a few listens I realised that due to the way the compositions often wove their way between themes, solos or duos one is not immediately aware of the intensity of the music. Nymo's Ayler-esque attacks after Håvard Wiik's flowing piano solos can take you (and your stereo) completely by surprise. However it's true to say that most of the themes on this CD use a sort of rubato to introduce the music ..... but it doesn't stay like that, not for long! You also get a clearer picture of the classical influences in the writing such as Tk3 Seksten and Tk5 Die Kunst (featured above).

The second CD is an expanded group or as Ole Morten Vagan told me : "The box covers the end of the quintet with Mathias, which was 2008 more or less, and the rise of the new and more open quintet with Eivind Lønning, and also our 10-year anniversary projects, featuring some of our friends like Håkon Kornstad, Mathias Ståhl, Ola Kvernberg and others." I guess this is the result of one of these projects as the expanded group plays some excellent up front music which is less introspective than the rest of the box sets offerings. With the addition of extra sax, trumpet, violin and guitar/lap steel guitar from time to time, the music takes off in a different way, the music is no less daring and still uses modern compositional ideas. Krakatau is an excellent example of the mixing of styles and one that (on the box set) really features Vagan playing his bass, it's also one of the highlights for me on this CD. In fact on the this CD Immunoflourescence is another bass feature (maybe a bass improvisation?) and it seems as though Vagan had more space for himself in these concerts. The titles also give us an idea of the general fun being had with the likes of Paddy Wack and Korean Barbecue Smokeout. You can hear how the audience really enjoyed these sets recorded in several places in 2009

I Distinctly Heard the Sound of.... (Tk 3 CD2)

Finally the third CD in this set is the collection of live material from the original line up and is maybe where one might find traces of the initial influences from Atomic, as mentioned. I found the music more 'bop orientated' with strong swinging riffs. You get a good view of the interaction between Håkon Mjåset Johansen and Vågan a very strong bass/drum team. To a certain extent a tune such as Allkiss also has elements of Keith Jarrett's quartet featuring Dewey Redman and Co. There's also the trumpet of Mathias Eick on this CD who approaches the music differently again and gives a slightly less 'avante-jazz' edge to the music. There are many fine passages here and an excellent choice of music to finish of this mammoth collection and one that if you're curious to discover this group it's certainly well worth the effort to find.

Personnel: Atle Nymo: tenor saxophone, bass clarinet; Eivind Lønning: trumpet (CD1, CD2, CD3#2); Håvard Wiik: piano; Håkon Mjåset Johansen: drums; Ole Morten Vågan: bass; Håkon Kornstad: tenor saxophone (CD2); Petter Vågan: guitar (CD2); Mattias Ståhl: vibraphone (CD2); Mathias Eick: trumpet (CD2#1, CD2#3, CD3#1, CD3#3-6); Ola Kvernberg: violin (CD2#1, CD2#3).

Footnote :
Sorry for such a long blurb, but it was difficult to do justice to these 3CDs (and 21 tracks) in only a few words. And after all that's what's blogging's about, eh!

Gentle Giant - not likely today.

2011-05-11T10:51:00.001+02:00

I just had to post this which I must of heard dozens of times on my old scratched up LP version. What made me laugh when watching the video is how they just play this complicated piece live, no problem. Immediately I thought of all the rock bands that are popular at the present and wondered how many could actually do such a thing at all. Maybe in the studio with the help of Pro-Tools or Logic, but not live on stage! Can you imagine the likes of Blur, U2, Mumford and Sons or Lady Gaga even being able to play even a one instrument correctly, but certainly not two (and singing in some cases). Of course that doesn't mean that todays rock musicians or less talented, but it does show how lazy they maybe are, and of course less involed in the real art of composition. I would say that this is the best of Gentle Giant, but it's fun to watch the guys going through their paces.

And lastly it's also interesting to wonder how many popular bands can also produce a quality show where they can keep the audience captivated by their own talent. I suppose that from Genesis' show 'The Lamb Lies Down ....', it's more and more common to expect your favourite group or artist to produce something. The likes of Lady Gaga, Madonna or Michael Jackson to name but three, all went out with one can only call 'musicals' (and for me) not less pompous than the rock bonanzas of ELP, or Yes. Funnily enough those groups (and that period) is what inspired the rise of the punk movement in the UK, even if those bands also became more and more polished in their presentations, a kind of 'the pot calling the kettle black'. Anyhow, I hope you enjoy the video from YouTube and if you don't know the group follow them up as there's plenty more interesting stuff to hear and see.

Peter Evans (and the ghost of Wynton M.)

2011-05-06T14:28:00.003+02:00

Here's a review I posted on the Free Jazz Blog concerning the latest Peter Evans (Quintet) recording. I could of written more about this release but decided due to space on Stef's Free Jazz blog that I'd keep the words down and write a little more here, and include an mp3 or two for those interested. In the meanwhile read on as I'll write some more blurb after the review.

Peter Evans Quintet - Ghosts (2011) *****

The quintet : Evans (trumpet), Carlos Homs (piano), Tom Blancarte (bass), Jim Black (drums), Sam Pluta doing live processing. What they do with the music is like going on a roller-coaster as you're tossed up in the air, whizzed around corners, spinning down and around. The quintet mixes bop and electronics in an compelling way, reminding me of the direction John Zorn took with his zapping music. Track 1 is a post bop type melody, but with subtle use of electronics, a rhythm section that stops, starts, speeds up and slows down like a be-bop Captain Beefheart, and that's just the beginning. '323' (Tk 2), the music again hits right between the eyes before flying off into a free form improvisation that gradually reassembles itself only after visiting several different rhythmical sections, here the music is relentless.

Carlos Homs plays excellent piano, managing to stay finely balanced between post bop and the music of now, mixing modern styles such as Matthew Shipp or Craig Taborn. Fine playing from all, Jim Black also is heard here in great form, maybe the most interesting drumming since the Tiny Bell Trio. Sam Pluta takes the music, in particular Evans trumpet, and sends it back to us the listener in many guises, sometimes it takes you a second to realise what you're actually hearing. Blancarte holds the whole thing together, probably more than we actually notice.

There are a few stopping places on the journey though, Ghost (Tk 3) being the first - based on the standard 'I Don't Stand a Ghost of a Chance with You'. Here the music is calm and spacious, Evans trumpet fires off spiralling away in all directions although he stays close to the melody (never played). The music is often daring and endlessly interesting whilst staying very accessible. And 'that' is probably the crux of the album, the music always stays melodic even in the wildest moments.'Articulation' (Tk 6) is like a conclusion at 14 mins, the sum of all the music heard, forever changing. This is where Wynton Marsalis could of gone with his classic 4tet, but never did.

In fact you could write much about this CD as there are endless details to discover and the music manages to subtly integrate many styles also. An excellent album with no weak moments, and I suspect one that will be high on 'best of' lists at the end of the year. 'Stardust' (the final track) is a nice way to leave the listener, don't you find?

A track that I originally mentioned in the review was Tk 5 Chorales, but due to space I decided to edit out the remark. However this was one of the sections that I really enjoyed due to the use of repetitive minimalism. It's something I love using in composition and here it works really well, if only a small section of the tune.

Chorales (Tk5)

I also briefly mention at the end of the review a reference to Wynton Marsalis, and it's not meant either as a joke or as a put down, rather a question unanswered. In reviewing the CD I often found myself thinking (or being reminded of) the great bands that Wynton had in the 80s and how this CD (made only recently) had some of those lessons learnt and developed. At music college I remember hearing, as we all did, the great standards record for the first time and it's breath taking use of harmony and rhythm. The rhythmical direction that 'that' band took was then even further developed by Branford, but it is sad (to me at least) that Wynton seemed to loose interest in that side of his music. Maybe that's also because he changed his band? I was also reminded here - Peter Evans CD - of how Wynton Marsalis had turned his back on more adventurous forms of music something that at the time became a 'bone of contention'. Ridiculous arguments between Lester Bowie and the likes about could the young Marsalis play. However, when hearing this I had to wonder what fresh ideas he may have found if he'd gone down this route and as you'll here if you buy the album, Evans doesn't actually stray far from conventional music and jazz, he just embraces other possibilities and successfully combines them into his playing and composition. The group like Wynton Marsalis' band is also an important piece of the music and without those players supporting the music may not have worked so well.

Articulation (Tk 6)

Here is a final track from the album which really is excellent and quite worth the detour. As I mentioned in the review Evans' Quintet really plays this music in a way that reinterprets the past and stays (or looks) very much to the future. There are three re-worked standards on the record, two mentioned in the review - Mel Tormé's 'Christmas Song' disguised as 'One to Ninety Two' being the other. I should add that the album is a hard listen, not so much because the music is complex, it's more about the amount of information being sent out of the speakers making this album anything but background music!

Dosados (Babel Label, 2011) - Mark Hanslip and Javier Carmona

2011-04-29T12:40:00.003+02:00

This is an album I've been waiting for for some time, ever since I noticed Mark Hanslip talking about sessions with Javier Carmona and the possibilities of recording. In fact I think that this is also a record that has come out of Mark Hanslip's personal development into the world of improvised music, being able to work with many of the top players in this field at the moment. I've noticed sessions with Mark Sanders, Paul Dunmall, Mike Hurley and of course the trio with Olie Brice and Tony Marsh, Tom-Mix. Also anyone whose followed British jazz in the past years will probably know the group Outhouse, a group that has developed over the years into a powerful force in UK jazz. What makes Outhouse interesting is the mixture between improvised and written and Mark Hanslip - who is no longer in the group - writing and playing was an important part of 'that sound' and certainly helped develop the direction the group.

However, here we're talking about the duo CD and certainly a brave step for any jazz musician to take when playing improvised music. John Coltrane's Interstellar Space (maybe the first sax and drums duo album) followed by the likes of Jackie McLean and Michael Garvin, Anthony Braxton/Max Roach, Archie Shepp/Max Roach, David Murray/Kahil el Zabar and Evan Parker/Tony Oxley. There are surely many more, however it's an area which is difficult to work in and certainly not very 'user friendly' when hoping to sell CDs! What I find interesting on this CD outing is the way that Hanslip and Carmona have taken a similar direction to Coltrane in that they 'almost' play it straight. Of course that does NOT mean playing ballads and swinging standards, no, it's more a concept of working more on lines and rhythms as a focal point. In fact the first word that came to mind on hearing this CD was 'pointillism' - a method developed by some of the impressionist painters. The two instruments work together in way that almost seems to splatter (or is that spray) notes and skins onto the sonic landscape. Mucha Mierda builds little points of sax and drums, dabbed onto the canvas building into an intense free wheeling improvisation.

:::: Horse-y (Tk 6) ::::

In fact much of the work here could be re-titled using painters and painting from the American artists such as Jasper Johns, Brigit Riley and Jackson Pollock. Track 11 - Jowls, and a Beard could be Jackson Pollock's painting would sound like if they could speak! The track has a very delicate start, carefully placing of notes and beats until the music take it's own direction, an almost Zen Archery approach.

Of course these are just ways to describe a sort of music which for me strongly conjures up images that are often abstract, but never without direction. The whole album is certainly an intense listen, which is not a bad sign in this day and age. In fact I heard Noah Preminger talking about the problem of listening to only 1 or 2 tracks from an album - usually 'the' one with the killing solo (or whatever is relevant). Is it a good album? Yes, for me it is, the music is never short of invention, it's atmospheric, colourful, intense yet has space, and actually it's all quite approachable - listen to Preambolo to Nipple 2.

:::: Preambolo to Nipple 2 (TK 4) ::::

Finally I should finish by adding that children are often better listeners than us where music is involved. They are not aware that one thing is fashionable and the other not, and music for them is just sounds and rhythms often representing 'a cow', 'an elephant', 'the rain', 'a forest' and such like. My children ran around the room, played scalextric, and generally had fun whilst the music played on, what more can you say?

p.s. Sorry not to mention Javier Carmona more, but unfortunately I couldn't find much about him. However I do see that he is very active on the UK scene and also in Europe. You'll have to do a little digging around on the net. As for Mark Hanslip check out the Twelves, early Outhouse (Outhouse and Outhouse Ruhabi), Alcyona Mick, Tom Mix and various other groups.

p.p.s. If you're interested in ordering this CD, DON'T order it from Babel, they are rather disorganised with their mailing service. You can always contact Mark Hanslip via his blog, or try to find it on Amazon ..... safer and surer.

Jackie McLean - On Mars

2011-03-20T19:22:00.006+01:00

I just couldn't resist posting this documentary on Jackie McLean, just one of the greatest jazz musicians ever. I really loved (and got turned onto) Jackie via the records with Grachan Moncur III, which are just the antitheses of a combination of melody and playing 'almost' free. Jackie McLean really understood the possibilities of combining the two worlds of straight ahead and free jazz, he made a set of burning records with Blue Note which are milestones in the genre. He seemed to not be afraid to embrace the two worlds, and saw the possibilities in both 'ways'. Interestingly he also seems to have developed the use of modal playing into the be-bop form with his classic One Step Beyond and Destination Out, and if you ever get a chance to hear his record 'Bout Soul, a record he made with Rashid Ali among others, you'll hear Jackie approaching music from a very 'free form' angle, even though (so I read) most of the music is composed. Anyhow, this is just about as far out as Jackie got, sounding something between Ornette Coleman's - Free Jazz and John Coltrane's - Ascension. And even though i talk about that one should remember that he played fantastic be-bop (and blues) Sonny Clark's 'Cool Strutin', Freddie Red's 'The Connection' or his own Bluesnik are great testaments to that side of his playing.

There's much more that one could write about Jackie but that's not really the point of this posting, it's just to make this documentary easily viewable, and I suppose to maybe 'hip' some people to the talents of this great musician.

Just in case anybody (who doesn't already know Jackie McLean) is interested to look into the work of this great man I can thoroughly recommend the following albums, most of which are easily findable and often at very cheap prices. All the records would get 5 stars .... no problem!

New Soil (1959)
Jackie's Bag (1959–60)
Bluesnik (1961)
A Fickle Sonance (1961)
Let Freedom Ring (1962)
Vertigo (1962–63)
One Step Beyond (1963)
Destination... Out! (1963)
Jacknife (1965)
New and Old Gospel (1967)
'Bout Soul (1967)
Demon's Dance (1967)

Here's the few that I haven't heard as yet - (just not enough time and money). But you can easily find peoples opinions on these at All Music or Amazon etc, and I'm sure they're all just as killing as the others. There's also all the other projects that he was involved in and his discography before 1959 and after 1967, there's plenty of good things to hear there also. Maybe I'll write a posting at some point in the future.

Swing, Swang, Swingin' (1959)
Capuchin Swing (1960)
Tippin' the Scales (1962)
It's Time! (1964)
Action Action Action (1964)
Right Now! (1965)
New and Old Gospel (1967)
'Bout Soul (1967)
Demon's Dance (1967)

It's such a shame there isn't any (not that I've seen) Jackie stuff up on YouTube and the likes with Jackie in the 60's. However from time you find stuff that's not in Jackie's final period, maybe not his best but still great to see. Here's another that I found with Tete Montoliu.

Twelves - The Adding Machine ... and before?

2011-03-15T00:53:00.009+01:00

Here's a first review of the Twelves (second) CD. I just wrote this review a few days after hearing the album and tried to capture my initial ideas on this very fresh sounding CD. As usual I then proceeded to refine (edit) the review for Free Jazz Blog (that I also write for) and ended up giving it 4 stars (the reviews not yet published). However, I still hesitate between that and an extra half (****½), but as usual time will be the wiser, and it will be interesting to see if the music will keep growing on each listen.

Twelves - The Adding Machine (Babel Label 2011)

Mark Hanslip - Tenor Sax

Riaan Vosloo - Bass

Tim Giles - Drums

Rob Updegraff - Guitar

For those in the know, what's happening in the UK is probably one of the most interesting and diverse jazz scenes in Europe. Bands such as Polar Bear, Trianglehead, Outhouse, Nostalgia 77, MA, Led Bib or Troyka (to name just a few) are constantly coming out with music that blurs the lines between jazz, rock, free jazz and pop. Many of these young musicians have been brought up on the sounds of Jimmy Page's 'Led Zeppelin' and Derek Bailey's 'Company', whist still feeling the waves of Loose Tubes and the Jazz Warriors, all in all making for very diverse influences.

One band that has been around for a few years is the Twelves, originally known as Twelves Trio. In 2008 the group (then a trio, of course) released the excellent 'Here Comes The Woodman With His Splintered Soul' (see below) - I was a few years behind and only stumbled across the album a little later via MySpace. In the meanwhile the group has moved on from it's initial format and has become a quartet with a more open approach to the music they play, crossing between open melodic free-jazz and some very driving rhythmic music, all of which centers around the interplay of the 4 musicians. This album is maybe a little more difficult to follow at first listen due to (seemingly) relatively 'less-catchy'(*) themes. However, one finds oneself listening over and over again to the album as the music begins to work it's magic over you, each theme having a particular colour and atmosphere.

Kerfuffle (Tk 4)

There's also Riaan Vosloo (bass) and Tim Giles (drums) heavily rocking grooves which swing like the clappers, or improvise together on the freer sections. One of the strong points of this band is it's ability to work rhythmically in a way that really opens up the music. Whether touching on free-ish jazz as on Spiders or Party Girls (both Hanslip compositions), or swinging on Kerfuffle, Eyeballing or Mr Zero, the group constantly keeps the music cooking by merging drum'n'bass, dub, free-improv, and straight swinging jazz rhythms together. Tunes such as Spiders almost boils away, guitar, bass and drums providing a turbulent undercurrent leaving the sax to weave lines which add colour to the whole. Many Splendoured Thing (Pt 1 & 2) a two part suite opens the CD presenting two aspects of the group, a hard 'rocking' section which features the wonderful guitar of Rob Updegraff and a gentler section for the saxophonist Mark Hanslip who gently floats over part 2, like a modern-day Stan Getz.

One of the highlights is Shallow Brown a traditional folk tune played in a beautifully open way. Mark Hanslip treats the melody as if he himself were playing a tin whistle or bagpipe even, tremolo-ing by half closing the sax keys. The rest of the group gently supports the tune in a lovely rubato fashion, as I read somewhere, 'like a modern day Niama'. The group actually tackled a traditional tune on their first album in the same way, and it seems this is an area that Riaan Vosloo & Co are interested in, quite a normal step since jazz (in it's early form) is all about folk music, and blues is folk music. If you've never heard Paul Brady singing the likes of The Lakes of Pontchartrain, then you don't know about blues!!

What more to say except, check it out!

And what came before ...... ?

Well, since we're talking about the Twelves I thought I might as well make a short presentation of the 1st album - Here Comes the Woodman with his Splintered Soul, which is a completely different cup of tea, but is quite definitely a logical forerunner to the newest album. Here the band played a more modern version of Coltrane's Crescent album, with plenty of very swinging tracks, but with a slightly harder groove to them (meaning a 2009 feel). They also add in another folk ballad into the mix She moved through the Fair which is treated as a rubato piece in much the same way as Shallow Brown. There's also an excellent version of Joe Henderson's Earth featuring Zoe Rahman to great effect. Listen (below) to Jiggery Pokery the first track on the CD, it possibly sums up the feeling of the group, which I read somewhere else as a modern day approach to Sonny Rollins trio. I'm not sure that's absolutely true, however it's a damned fine trio ...... even if it's a quartet!

Here Comes the Woodman with his Splintered Soul -

Twelves Trio (1965 Records - 2008)

Jiggery Pokery (Tk1)

(*) What's a 'catchy' theme? Actually I use this term to talk about musical themes that aren't immediate, or obvious on first listens. Some musical themes jump out immediately, such as good pop, others like fine wines, such as classical music, are to be discovered and savoured, often becoming very strong and personnel favourites.

More from 'The Man with the Glass Nose'

2011-03-07T20:19:00.004+01:00

Well, I made a posting a few months ago on the Man with the Glass Nose which is a project I'm working on with Roald Baudoux, an electro acoustician. We are building up sets of improvisations around this particular tale from the work of Kurt Schwitters translated by Jack Zipes. The project is a collaboration with UK artist Irvine Peacock the originator of this project, there are various other artists who are participating also. The work is actually many pieces of art which will be placed into a box called the Merz Box - based on the Merz Fairy Tales that Schwitters wrote. The box will be added to from time to time and so we (Roald and I) are contributing a CD to the box, with the idea that we will develop the improvisation over the next few months, record and re-mix the versions to make a small 4 or 5 CD box .... maybe in glass eventually?

So, this is the latest version which we've been working on. I was going to make it downloadable for the next few weeks, so if you're interested, contact me, and I can send you a link. However if you end up going to one of the shows you'll be able to buy a CD with a specially designed cover by Irvine Peacock, and if you follow the showings around you will be able to get different (collectable) versions, with of course new covers each time - limited editions (I imagine).

The Man with the Glass Nose 020311 - Higham/Baudoux (29 minutes)

The sound file here is only in mp3, however as already mentioned it's downloadable so that you can listen to it on you stereo to get the full effect.

Morton Fork & his Gang.

2011-02-23T16:58:00.004+01:00

I arrived in Belgium at the end of 1988, a great period for jazz in Brussels and music in general. There was so much happening and so many places to play, unlike today. I can't list all of the places that presented music but I remember that each type of music had a page to itself in the local newspaper 'Le Soir' (MAD), and most cafés still stayed open until two or three in the morning ...... that's just how it was. I'd come to Belgium to visit family but very quickly started playing in local bands and jamming with all the great musicians here, and the Brussels Conservatory decided to open it's doors to jazz starting a jazz section which would (much) later become a degree course in the years 2000. A friend of mine told me about another English sax player Geoff Leigh who had played in a group called Henry Cow, and who was living in his street. A few weeks later I was introduced to Geoff whilst playing a festival in Brussels and we immediately became good friends, chatting away about jazz and music in general, and spending hours laughing about Belgium and it's peculiarities. Anyhow, I mentioned to Geoff an idea I had about making a 'mobile group' of three or four horn players + a drummer. Geoff was immediately taken with the idea and we picked a few people and started rehearsing.

The First Line Ups.

At the beginning we chose a few people we thought would fit the groups mood and we ended up as a quintet, although this line up only lasted two or three rehearsals :

Geoff - tenor sax & flute. Pierre Six - Tenor Sax. Claude Janssens - Trombone. Pierre Narcisse - drums, and myself (Joe Higham) Soprano sax.

Right from the very beginning Geoff wondered if we should really bring in a bass into the music and suggested I meet a friend of his called Guy Segers, who he knew through the Rock In Opposition movement. Guy plays bass and had played with many people over the years and especially Univers Zero, a Belgian band that toured the world playing a very heavy type of chamber rock. So Guy came along to a rehearsal and of course we then became a sextet ...... four horns, bass and drums ..... but we still needed more, yes more. Of course as a band develops, especially if you enjoy checking out peoples suggestions, it's interesting to add extra players who in the beginning are friends of friends, almost. And so the group developed very quickly into a first incarnation of 7 musicians :

Myself - soprano sax, Geoff - tenor sax/flute, Daniel Stokart - alto sax, Claude Janssens - trombone, Mark Bogaerts - baritone & alto sax + guitar, Guy Segers - bass, Pierre Narcisse - drums.

The Name.

The name came from various brainstorming sessions, with probably many suggestions, however Geoff came across this expression one day whilst browsing a book (or encyclopaedia) and thought that it perfectly fitted the group. I must say I somehow thought it was a bit clumsy but liked the idea behind it, and although The Morton Fork Gang was the official name we often referred to the band as just (The) Morton Fork.

Here's what Wiki says on the subject, which looks fairly correct - Morton's Fork : Wikipedia

The Next Episode.

We played a few concerts with this group, and I must say that the music - as I remember it - was rough, but at the same time very exciting and crossed many borders between jazz, rock and free jazz. I still have a cassette of the first concert which I should digitalise and put up on this blog-post (one of these days). However, the trombone player Claude felt a little out of his depth in this music, and also had a day job which required more attention. This meant that we had to find another trombone player which in Belgium (at the time) wasn't so easy. So, we opted for the friends system again and ended up with a cello player, Jan Kuijken. Jan was busy playing an electric cello and so could make sounds from Hendrix to Bach, which of course suited us fine!

On the photo

L to R standing : Geoff - tenor sax/flute, Pierre Narcisse - drums, Guy Segers - bass, Daniel Stokart - alto sax.
Sitting : Jan Kuijken - cello, Mark Bogaerts - baritone & alto sax + guitar, Myself - soprano sax.

The boys in action @ Travers Jazz Club (1990)

The Final Version.

Oddly enough we - at least I do - still have loads of taped recordings of concerts with the (above) line up, but somehow we didn't get round to recording anything properly at that time, and it's unfortunate that there aren't more photos, but that of course was a period before digital cameras were on the go. However the final version of the group, which played the most concerts, was recorded properly although it was never released. We recorded 2 nights at the Botanique in Brussels which amounted to 30 odd tunes recorded - some tunes two or three times of course. By this stage the group had changed it's drummer and had Daniel Denis (the drummer of Univers Zero) and this gave the group a much heavier sound as Daniel was able to play in many styles and always went for precision in terms of his playing.

I thought to post two tunes from these recording just for the fun of hearing the music many years later. It's interesting to hear how strong and original the band was for that time. I suppose you could draw comparisons between the Lounge Lizards and Morton Fork as it has some of the same directions and never lacked humour.

The two pieces here are with the line up as follows :

Myself - soprano sax, Geoff - tenor sax/flute, Daniel Stokart - alto sax, Mark Bogaerts - baritone & alto sax + guitar, Jan Kuijken - cello, Guy Segers - bass, Daniel Denis - drums.

I picked the tunes posted here really by chance. As I mentioned there are 33 tunes/takes to choose from, but I finally went for a standard from Horace Silver - Senor Blues, that I arranged for the band - I also arranged Chippie from Ornette Coleman, and believe it or not Come Sunday from Duke Ellington which worked well with the band, however the rest of the repertoire was original. Kilometers was basically a piece by Geoff which he brought into a rehearsal one day. I can't remember if he thought there was something missing (or maybe was incomplete), but I ended up tagging this idea which I already had - but nowhere to use - onto the theme (starts at 1:14), and hey presto Kilometers was up and running!

Kilometers (G.Leigh/J.Higham)

Solos - Geoff and Mark.

Senor Blues (Horace Silver) - arr J.Higham

Solos - Jan and Daniel Stokart.

I should also add that none of this music is mixed and originally we'd thought to do some over dubbing, but this never happened. It seemed that we were almost starting to get somewhere with the music when disaster struck. Geoff became very ill and had to go back to the UK, Daniel Stokart had kidney problems and ended up having regular dialysis (stopping him from travelling with the band), Jan had an illness of the inner ear and could no longer be subjected to noise for several months. We had several offers for big festivals which of course we naturally had to turn down, and so the band just went into demise. Anyhow it's interesting to listen to the music and wonder what could of happened with such an interesting line up, but that's for another life time!

I hope you enjoy the music and in the meanwhile I'm off to look for the cassettes of earlier Morton concerts on the off chance there's a few more bits I can add onto this post.

Blowing my own trumpet, as you say.

2011-02-11T19:48:00.003+01:00

Thought I'd just add in a quick reminder for all those living within driving, walking, flying distance of Brussels of a couple of exciting dates coming up. Why exciting ........ umm, err, well I'm playing!

Sunday 13th February

Joe Higham 4tet ::: 20h

Joe Higham - sax and clarinet

Frederik Leroux - guitar and sounds

Hugo Antunes - bass

Marek Patrman - drums

Friday 25th February

The OPen Source @ JazzOlder ::: 20h

Joe Higham - sax & clarinet

Augusto Pirodda - piano

Hugo Antunes - bass

Joao Lobo - drums

You can listen to the OPen Source here if you're interested to know what it's about. In the meanwhile I hope to see you there.

Phil Bancroft and the lost CDs - Pt 2.

2011-02-01T10:32:00.004+01:00

In the first posting of Phil Bancroft and the lost CDs - Pt 1 (see previous posting) I ended up only getting Phil's first CD looked at, and only just the bear bones at that. I listened to it again and again over the past few days whilst writing all of this and realised how much there was on there that I'd forgotten, after all I bought the CD some 7 or 8 years ago! In fact writing about music is (I find) an excellent way of really looking in depth at what it all means to you. Here's what I wrote on the previous post to explain my first introduction to Headlong.

I once called the office of Caber records, a now extinct CD label for promoting Scotland's jazz music and musicians, after reading a little quote on the CD sleeve saying that you could return the disc if you weren't satisfied by the music. I'd just read a review on a disc by Phil Bancroft and his then 4tet called Headlong and thinking it sounded really interesting ordered the disc from Caber. On first hearing the CD I was a little disappointed due to the fact that the sax was not taking a more 'upfront' traditional role, which is what I'd been expecting. I called the Caber office a few days later and started explaining the situation (taking into account the remark on the CD about returns). The secretary for some reason didn't get what I was saying and said that Phil was in the office and why didn't I speak to him ....!!! So, onto the line he came, and I then had to explain the situation to my embarrassment and of course to Phil's amazement. He stayed calm and suggested politely that maybe I should give the CD a second chance and then the conversation carried on a bit as I asked after his other albums. Anyhow, I kept the CD, and to cut an already long story short, I ended up over the next two years buying a packet of albums from Caber, all of which are excellent. In fact, and the reason for this posting, Headlong became one of my all time favourite albums and seriously influenced my thinking about composition and musical direction. Also as I discovered the gems that were coming from the Bancroft brothers Phil and Tom I was more and more interested in getting a more personal style of music for myself, and those discs were in a way the start of one of my projects Al-Orkesta. But that's a whole other thing, and here I thought to highlight a few of those CDs from the now defunct Caber label. How these guy and their music missed the radar is a mystery to me, and of course the failing of such a world-class label also(*).

Headlong (Caber 2004)

Phil Bancroft - Tenor Sax

Mike Walker - Guitar

Reid Anderson - Bass

Thomas Strønen - Drums

After introducing the album it's difficult not to over-blow it's qualities, however, there's much on this album yet at the same time so understated that it gradually gets under your skin, something that all good music does, a 'grower' as some people say. There's also the unique quality of the musicians that Phil choose and with such a combination as this you end up with excellent music and (naturally in jazz) very sympathetic support for each other. Mike Walker absolutely blows up a storm at some points the first tune (see below) being a good example. Reid Anderson from the now well known Bad Plus plays with his usual taste, and due to the fact that the music is so contemporary he really fits well into the sound of the group/music, it's a shame that this was there only record. And finally Thomas Strønen, for all that don't know this drummer come percussionist make an effort to listen to some of his other work as he takes the notion of playing rhythm (or drums) in a very different direction from most players.

Golden Section - Tk 1.

The music ranges from delicate melodies, which develop into hard swinging pieces, to much freer forms, in fact much of the music really hangs on a precipice of in and out which is what keeps it so fresh. Tracks such as Goes Around, Comes Around start as gentle 'Ornette-esque' melodies developing into full blown free improvisations, and yet tracks Samson Sam Song Part 1 and later Headlong are both very loose pieces, gentle ballads that remains delicate throughout, and such lovely tunes full of space and atmosphere - it's on these pieces that Thomas Strønen really uses his percussive palette. BOIP Avoiding being a good example of a piece that starts in what seems a boppish manner and then little by little becomes a (melodic) free for all, which continues swinging, in fact never lets up. In fact the strength of the album is exactly the point that I missed when phoning Caber's office, nobody really hogs the limelight on this album, it's truly collective. Players emerge from the group to play more (solo?) or less as compared to the others around them, and this gives an effect of real music rather than the usual - theme, solo, theme .... etc. Unfortunately I never got a chance to hear the group live, and I think that they maybe only toured the UK once, which is a shame when hearing the results. I seem to remember that the 4tet played a BBC Radio 3 session, but again I didn't catch it and I think that this group live must have been a very exciting group, and probably more suited to live work than the confines of CD.

Double Trouble - Tk 5.

Finally here's a video of one of Phil Bancroft's latest projects 'Home Small as the World'. I don't know if there's any album coming out of it but the music sounds fresh and interesting as always. I know he has another CD worth of material but since (on his web pages) it's been ready for release 'soon' for quite a while I wonder if it will ever actually be released.

You should also check out Phil's wacky YouTube video Message from the Future which is done with the usual Bancroft sense of humour, and of course no boundaries when talking about music.

Phil Bancroft and the lost CDs - Pt 1.

2011-01-19T10:34:00.004+01:00

I once called the office of Caber records, a now extinct CD label for promoting Scotland's jazz music and musicians, after reading a little quote on the CD sleeve saying that you could return the disc if you weren't satisfied by the music. I'd just read a review on a disc by Phil Bancroft and his then 4tet called Headlong and thinking it sounded really interesting ordered the disc from Caber. On first hearing the CD I was a little disappointed due to the fact that the sax was not taking a more 'upfront' traditional role, which is what I'd been expecting. I called the Caber office a few days later and started explaining the situation (taking into account the remark on the CD about returns). The secretary for some reason didn't get what I was saying and said that Phil was in the office and why didn't I speak to him ....!!! So, onto the line he came, and I then had to explain the situation to my embarrassment and of course to Phil's amazement. He stayed calm and suggested politely that maybe I should give the CD a second chance and then the conversation carried on a bit as I asked after his other albums. Anyhow, I kept the CD, and to cut an already long story short, I ended up over the next two years buying a packet of albums from Caber, all of which are excellent. In fact, and the reason for this posting, Headlong became one of my all time favourite albums and seriously influenced my thinking about composition and musical direction. Also as I discovered the gems that were coming from the Bancroft brothers Phil and Tom I was more and more interested in getting a more personal style of music for myself, and those discs were in a way the start of one of my projects Al-Orkesta. But that's a whole other thing, and here I thought to highlight a few of those CDs from the now defunct Caber label. How these guy and their music missed the radar is a mystery to me, and of course the failing of such a world-class label also(*).

Swings and Roundabouts (Caber 1998)

Phil Bancroft - Tenor Sax

Steve Watts - Bass

Marcello Pellitteri - Drums

Swings and Roundabouts is (as far as I know) Phil's first CD, and in a way it was the album I was kind of looking for (when complaining to Caber) and I ordered this a short while after my phone conversation. It's exactly what the doctor ordered when you need a good dose of jazz, and quite daring jazz at that. In fact the one thing that stuck out on hearing Headlong earlier was the individual compositional direction, and on this, his first album, it's amazing the way Phil Bancroft has filled a CD with very individual compositions. Not only are the compositions original but all are very strong pieces and very mature, exactly what most peoples first CDs (and the rest) lack, and that's not even talking about the playing. There are two non originals Space Buffie 1999 from his brother Tom and an amazing version of Duke Ellington's - I Got it Bad. The album moves from excellent free playing which seems to be very cleverly intertwined into the compositions, one of the amazing strengths of the music, and some beautiful romantic semi-ballads - B's Niece and Love-gone Wrong - which are often (to my ears) very 'folk' oriented and innately Scottish. The other pieces are little gems compositionally Rock House, Swings and Roundabouts, and Jiggle all have amazing twists and turns that make them a joy to hear each time, and although it's a Rollinsesque trio they manage to avoid any of the genres clichés. Hubert and Cowboy Pete an out and out calypso kind of reminds us of Sonny Rollins more immediately, but with a fantastic tag that brings to mind Joe Henderson playing Raincheck on the CD Lush Life.

Phil's playing is also outstanding, great sound, furious swing (when needed), very clearly defined lines when playing free improvised sections. He seems to combine lines and more intervalic playing which keeps his style one step away from more traditional players modern post bop approach, and the style that most conservatories teach nowadays.

You can listen here to Swings and Roundabouts from this album. I choose this piece quite simply because it was the shortest pieces on the CD, and not because it represents the album. However, I love the way the trio plays this open sounding and very melodic tune and at least gives a chance to hear how Phil sounds. I should also say that Steve Watts and Marcello Pellitteri are a joy to hear also, and it's in part due to their supportive playing that the music works so well.

Swings and Roundabouts - tk 8.

Finally, due to the amount of space taken up by my first Phil Bancroft CD posting, it looks as though this is going to become a Pt 1, 2, 3 etc - I'll be looking at Headlong and some of the Trio AAB CDs. So check the label tags and find out more on this story. I also think that if you're interested to find this CD you can still (maybe) find it on Amazon, or of course try contacting Phil Bancroft directly.

(*) Read this article to understand more about the sad (demise) story of Caber Records. I managed to talk with Tom Bancroft in a quick phone interview where he explained some of the problems of running such a project.

So funny.

2011-01-12T23:35:00.001+01:00

Well, just bumped into this on YouTube, great fun.

Giving it away.

2010-12-26T18:15:00.004+01:00

This is really a short post to follow up a short discussion - had via the comments section - with Jacques Prevost, a Belgian music journalist (and all round philosopher) who has a very lively music blog Jazzques. Jacques and I passed back and forth question/comments in a previous posting which he then used as a short online interview. One thing that fascinated me is the idea of getting (some of) your music out to the public, to be heard as in the concert situation, or rehearsals. I like the idea that you get to hear what people are working on, live concert recordings and short work-in-progress snippets. I've come across a few musicians sites who work a little in the same way. It's great to be able to get to sample a little of their different projects, and they don't need to be in high quality wave files to be enjoyed. After all if you can't always make it to the concert - especially if it's 1000's of kilometres away!

A few places offering free music are/have been :

Cooper-Moore
Matt Otto - lessons, and free music!
Steve Coleman
NPR Music - Live at the Village Vanguard - You can download some of the most recent concerts.
Panopticon
Birmingham Jazz - Great place to download some of the interesting jazz circulating in the UK.

Smalls Jazz Club (you can only listen).

Although I've put Steve Coleman into this list I would like to point out that it's good news (for us) that you can listen to and download the music of Steve Coleman for free, it's also lucky for him that he's well known, played all around the world, made a reasonable living out of his music/playing and lastly that his reputation means that he can get concerts (and so sell, or sold, his recordings also) with no problem. Not something that lesser known European players can do so easily, if at all. When I see big name pop bands giving their music away and saying this is the thing to do, after already making millions out of their record/CD sales, it's really the dialogue of people who are no longer in touch with reality. This is a long discussion and has already been argued over by the likes of Lilly Allen and others, however when it comes to the jazz world I don't think that such large sales figures really become an issue.

As for more web-sites giving away free music I'll post more as I come across them. I won't be taking into account those people who give away 'one' track from their latest CD and the likes.

There are also various blog sites that offer live concert recordings, these although not real 'freebies' are excellent ways to discover and hear groups who will never play in your neighbourhood. I hope that the musicians concerned don't mind, in earlier times these were known as bootlegs and record companies fought hard to get rid of or release better versions of these recordings. However, for jazz and improvised music they have become valuable sources of lost concerts and people that we never got a chance to hear live, and after all that's what music is about! You can check through my blog list where you can find some of these sites.

A final remark on why it's fun to give away (or make freely available) your music. Some music is just not easily sellable and if you're hoping to find concerts then forget it! The public is often hesitant to go to concerts where the musicians aren't known, or the music a bit different, one has to understand that many programmers are afraid (fear) to program music outside the norm. Cultural centers, festivals, jazz programming centers do not include more marginal types of music in their program. Some places are just down right rude and never even answer back ...... unless you add in that Charlie Parker is guesting! What we hear generally in festival programs is music that's easily digestible, or one could say 'not too challenging'. In addition it's maybe interesting for the public to understand that they are not always hearing music that musicians (would) choose to play! So, it seems to me that giving people a chance to hear your music for free, or at least the concerts, can only be a good thing, hopefully making people curious to come and see/hear your music live, where it should be heard. And one never knows maybe a programmer might just stumble across the recordings, and even be courageous enough to take a chance!

Postscript :

I thought I'd add in this poster from the Amougies festival in 1969. What's so interesting about this (for me) is the real cross section of music played here - Yes and Dave Burrell, Clifford Thornton and John Surman on the same day/bill, not a bad mixture. Of course it's wondering of the tracks a little when talking about giving away music, but it shows how at one time programming music could produce exciting results!

Click on the poster to get a larger view.

Interesting poster from the famous Amougies Festival 1969 on the border of Belgium.

More news from 'The OPen Source'.

2010-12-05T13:46:00.024+01:00

The OPen Source - Live at the Hot Club de Gand

07/11/2010

Joe Higham - sax/clarinet, Augusto Pirodda - Piano

Hugo Antunez - bass, Antonio Pisano - Drums.

Here is the continuation of the OPen Source improvisation project. As I said in an earlier posting, it's interesting to hear how some of the work progresses when checking out musicians posts. Here I've decided to upload (via Rapishare) the first 'real' concert which took place at the Hot Club De Gand, a small club in Gent (Belgium) which hosts some interesting 'more open' types of music. In the files that I've uploaded you'll find 4 tunes/improvisations : #1 and #2 (First set), #3 and #4 (Second set), in total about 2 hours of music.

We (naturally) improvised all the music except for occasionally using some of Augusto's themes as starting points to create atmospheres or maybe even a tonal area. These themes were sometimes just played in the middle of an improvisation, and not always as opening themes (at the beginning of a piece), and it was up to the other players to decide whether to follow, or just carry on. This meant that the music had when needed a possible 'crutch' that could help us refresh our ideas at any given moment.

It's also (for me) interesting to be able to hear this music for a first time. One of the strange things with improvising everything is that you have very little reference as to how the music is sounding to the outside listener, or I should say 'the public'. When playing more conventional jazz theme based music, you at least have major guidelines such as the theme, the chords, etc, by which you can at least judge (even if only on a moments thought) how well you played or followed those things : -

- "Oh *$%+°°° I really made a mess of the theme"

- "OOOOPPPPs, I missed the B section, etc".

However in this type of music you just have to listen to the other musicians all the time, with no time left to asses how things are going. So, anyhow here's the music as it sounded on the night (anyone whose brave enough to download the music) and you can judge for yourselves how things turned out. If you wondering how the group sounds, check out a previous post with a rehearsal session here (or click work in progress in the labels section).

mp3 Zip Files @ Rapidshare (it's free, what can you loose?)

:::: First Set ::::
:::: Second Set ::::
Try the first set, and if you like it come back for the second set.

The photos are naturally not taken at the concert, but just a couple of snaps I took one day whilst rehearsing and having our usual philosophical discussions in one of our little work sessions, and a few pictures are always fun to look at on a blog..... don't you think?

I hope you enjoy the music.

For all of those who are just curious I've posted the fourth improvisation of the evening here. It's 35 minutes long, so take some time out before pushing on play. Of course if you enjoy it try downloading a set!

Listen here to a set of the band - recorded @ The Hot Club de Gand.

* Rapidshare for those who don't know it is a file storage site, there are many, but this is the one I belong to. Unfortunately downloading files can take some time if you don't have an account - also depends on the time of day - however, if your interested in the music then just be patient.

** RAR files. You'll need a RAR converter to open these. You can find one on the web, there's plenty around that are free to download. You just need to drag and drop the files into the converter and press 'GO'. However, you'll need all three (3) files for the system to work!!!

Harry Miller - A Family Affair (and more).

2010-11-24T15:52:00.005+01:00

I was listening to an excellent bootleg of Elton Dean's Ninesense recorded live at the 100 Club in London in 1979 and what an amazing experience it was, and still is. It's hard to imagine the energy of this band without having witnessed them live, and in that particular line-up. But for me the importance of hearing this band is the presence of Harry Miller and with him as always drummer Louis Moholo and pianist Keith Tippett (*). The music is intense, the most intense swing (free, and otherwise) you've ever heard, and I've heard - and even played with - some very intense rhythm sections, but this! Anyhow, the importance of this reminded me of my first experience and the discovery of Harry Miller way back in '77.

As an avid music fan (and amateur teenager guitarist) I'd started discovering the edges of jazz music due to the first time re-issue of the Blue Note catalogue on EMI. These albums had been mentioned in The Melody Maker and I'd been down to my local vinyl store to buy one or two of those which had been recommended in Melody Maker. I'd not heard any real jazz before but was interested due to a jazz encyclopaedia The Illustrated Encyclopaedia of Jazz - (Brian Case) - which I'd been given. I'd also heard bits of jazz on the radio along with the likes of John Martyn and a few other 'jazzy' sounds, I was also about to go off to art college where I would discover the likes of Charlie Parker and Co. However I one day stumbled across a write up in Melody Maker of the new LP by a bass player called Harry Miller. Something about the review seemed very interesting, maybe the picture or the description of the music - I still have it, I'll dig out in the near future. It was also certainly VERY alternative musically, at least for someone from my age group, this made it more intriguing. I asked my brother if he could pick up a copy of this record the next time he was passing through London on the way back from university.

Harry Miller's Isipingo - Family Affair 1977 (Ogun Records OG 310)

Not only was this my first Miller album but also my first OGUN record (Harry's own label). The feel of the record - which is pressed in very heavy vinyl - and the cover already made an impact, I was sort of hypnotised before even listening to the music inside. I was to be disappointed, however I didn't really know what to make of it, almost like my first discovery of King Crimson. The music pulsed rather than swung, as most jazz that I'd heard up until that point. The soloists played partly 'jazzy' licks and mostly shrieks and wails that at times were very intense. The piano player (Keith Tippett) didn't comp' politely but played ripples of sound - on a rather dry sounding upright - or at times played very short percussive stabs and one note lines. The drums and bass team of Harry and Louis Moholo were just something I'd never heard before in music, dense swing that made your hair stand up on your arms and neck and a fierce drive that was often unstoppable, or at least sounded that way. The tunes, only four on this album, were for me hard to get into, but the joyful sounds that came from the record made me listen and listen again.

The 4 tunes :

Side One : Family Affair, Touch Hungry. Side Two : Jumping and Eli's Song.

The musicians :

Miller (bass), Marc Charig (trumpet), Malcolm Griffiths (trombone), Mike Osborne (alto), Keith Tippett (piano), Louis Moholo (drums).

The music, which I'm listening to as I write, moves through all areas, all of which you maybe call 'avant-garde/free bop', but still very melodic, if that makes sense. The first tune Family Affair starts off with a piano, bass and drum groove which is very singable. This is followed by glorious horn ensemble paying the main theme, the trombone, trumpet and intense alto (of Mike Osborne) give it a strangely big band sound, yet with the first solo by Malcolm Griffiths you realize that the music is not going to be a Count Basie record as he glides in playing nice lines that hint at dissonance, but not too much. Keith Tippett often playing piano that sounds sometimes from Steve Reich and sometimes like Debussy's Cathédrale Engloutie. But with Marc Charig's solo things start to really warm up, leading towards a lovely change from minor to major at the 6:08 minute mark. It's like the group is finally moving into 4th gear and seems an almost joyous moment in the solo, revelatory even. The final soloist, and my first introduction, is Mike Osborne, a very intense alto player who later on had to withdraw from music due to severe schizophrenia.

After this first track the whole thing takes off in many directions and in those days completely lost me. The tracks run into each other as it's all taken from a live concert recorded at the Battersea Arts Center, which means there's probably more recorded ..... but where? Touch Hungry features some glorious out playing from the horns and the music stops and starts very organically, but for me the thing that jumped out of this track is Keith Tippett's amazing piano solo, that somehow manages to defy description, due to it's many points of departure - swinging one note runs, large arppegiated chords played very fast, stabs and thumps. Finally when he's a t his most 'out' the horns seems to swagger back in and Keith comes back down to earth, and harmony, as if nothing could be more natural.

The highlight of the album is probably Jumping, a fast up tempo free-bop piece with a very intense solo from Mike Osborne, which has some almost chase like moments from Keith Tippett's piano which accompanies very tightly. The whole thing builds into a free for all over beautiful chordal shapes with Osborne leading the ensemble making the music sound a little like a Coltrane-esqe spiritual sound. Everyone - except Miller and Moholo - get to solo on this and the trombone builds strong free-bop lines which stay more towards the tonal area created by the theme, whereas Keith Tippett yet again takes his piano into various different orbits around the pulsing rhythm section. Finally it's left up to Marc Charig to introduce the final solo with the other horns coming in bit by bit. The final tune, which was the only one could easily relate to at the time, is Eli's Song which is lovely melody which then gives way to a sort of Seven For Lee ostinato, and gives a kind of feature where Mike Osborne plays some serious Jackie McLean type alto.

After hearing this album I searched out some more of his LP's although to my mind he never got to the same heights musically as this album. However various live bootlegs do show that his live bands were always as exciting, and due to his early death in '83 in a car accident in Holland, where he was living at the time. I however am completely moved every time I hear one of the many bands he played in - too many to mention here - and especially with Louis Moholo as they were such a strong team. It's also a credit that someone took it upon themselves to record and release so much on the edge jazz at that period, the only other label in the UK being Incus records.

Here's the track Family Affair taken from a live recording (a little different, and much faster). Listen to the 'burning' rhythm section of Miller, Moholo and Tippett :

You can find some of the other tunes from this record also posted on YouTube.

Footnote on Wiki entries. Sorry that these links are so poor, and really quite an insult considering the importance of these musicians. however, I thought to include these as it's often a quite useful way to give readers a idea of who these people are, and of course dig further into the various search engines, jazz books, Bootleg download sites, and of course second-hand CD shops. Harry Miller hardly has a mention on the web, and considering his input in the UK jazz scene? The same applies to the others, although due to Elton Dean's Soft Machine connection he at least seems to have some solid biographical information floating around, and also more re-released recordings.

* = The UK jazz magazine Jazzwise published an article recently about Louis Moholo. I was completely shocked to see that hardly any mention of Harry Miller occurred. It seems to me that these two men were almost a permanent team with unrelenting energy. If you check out these two names in the UK jazz scene of the 70s you'll notice that they made dozens of recording and thousands of gigs together. I wonder why such a short mention of Harry in that article as if he hadn't existed?

John Carter

2010-11-14T23:11:00.023+01:00

It's difficult to write about such a broad minded player such as John Carter, after all he seems to have slipped through the net when it comes to 'well known' musicians, yet somehow he seems to have been a pioneer all on his own, especially when talking about the clarinet. In fact if you've already clicked on the wiki link you'll have noticed that it's a very short entry.

Born in Fort Worth, the same town as Ornette Coleman we're always reminded, John Carter although starting his career with sax and clarinet later focused on one instrument (rather than be a jack of all trades?), and that instrument being the clarinet. Although saying that, his earlier recordings with Bobby Bradford were centered on the tenor/alto saxophones, and he was no slouch on those instruments for sure! I'm certainly no specialist on John Carter and all the music he recorded and played, but it is striking to hear his earlier music and realize how far ahead he was in terms of 'concepts'. His early records with Bobby Bradford are really quite stunning. They show how these two were really soooooo far ahead of everybody else at the time, when it comes to open improvisation, with melodic structure and flexible time.

The first three albums are almost the same, and one has to wonder what the recording circumstances were, after all two of the records/sessions seem to have been recorded almost simultaneously - Flight for Four (1st January '69) and West Coast Hot (on 3rd January '69). The third in the series is recorded a few days later - Seeking (16th January '69).

Seeking - New Art Ensemble (1969)

Nowadays this album is found under various titles, but both mention John Carter and Bobby Bradford - re-released several times and most recently on HatOlogy 620. This is a good a place to start as any when thinking about discovering Carter and his music. As already mentioned the first three records are very similar and have the same personnel. This record flies off the turntable/CD player straight away with a fast Ornette type of tune called 'In the Vinyard' with John Carter on tenor!! Yes, it's also one of the reasons I like this record, our clarinet man starts out on tenor sax, and maybe, although it's to late to ask, it would have been very interesting to ask Dewey Redman about Carter and the tenor sax, their sound and styles have much in common with Dewey Redman. The second track 'Karen on Monday' also holds an interesting surprise due to it's duo quality. It starts with a lovely (and lonely) duet with alto sax and double bass - playing a bass line which resembles 'Footprints' ! The music could almost come from some late night police series or film from the seventies. Interestingly they manage to keep this very subtle tune moving without ever getting into a tempo, quite remarkable really as you interest stays all the way through. Most of the tunes are what nowadays one would 'freebop' but often with very intricate lines played very precisely. I think I read somewhere that these albums had as much inventiveness as Ornette, but due to the fact that these guys didn't re-locate to NewYork the music didn't get so well heard. Interesting enough tunes such as 'The Village Dancers' and 'Sticks and Stones' could certainly come from an Ornette album. The main difference being the precision of the unison work and the clarinet of course.

In the Vinyard - from Seeking (1969)

It's here where John Carter went in another direction with the use of clarinet, which of course doesn't really have the same initial impact as sax, and probably is less attractive to the young kid wanting to copy his idol. I remember at college not being so interested in the clarinet, after all John Coltrane, Ornette Coleman and Cannonball Adderly all played sax - not forgetting the other more modern (sax) players that influenced me ... Branford Marsalis, Mike Osborne, Skidmore, Garbarek etc ... no clarinets here!

The album that really caught my attention with Carter was (of course) 'Castles of Ghana' a complete giant of an album, and part three of a trilogy mapping the development and history of the movement of peoples from Africa to America in the slave trade.

Castles of Ghana - (1985)

In fact the Castles of Ghana (Roots and Folklore: Episodes in the Development of American Folk Music # 2) and the other two Dauhwe, Dance of the Love Ghosts, Fields and Shadows on the Wall (Roots and Folklore Volumes #1 and #3, #4 and #5 - respectively), all use the compositional techniques that you hear on the early discs as mentioned above. He constantly writes melodies moving in and out of ensembles made up of duos, trios etc. However with an ensemble that is made up of John Carter – clarinet, vocals, Bobby Bradford – cornet, Baikida Carroll – trumpet, vocals, Benny Powell – trombone, Marty Ehrlich – bass clarinet, percussion, Terry Jenoure – violin, vocals, Richard Davis – bass, Andrew Cyrille – drums..... the palette of sounds is vast and always swinging! Examples of the music to be found here are a wonderful clarinet duo with Marty Ehrlich on Conversations, a wonderful fanfare like piece (opens the album) which is built around a drum ostinato. Interestingly John Carter uses his clarinet here in a very interesting way, creating bird like sounds - difficult to explain - throughout this piece 'Castles of Ghana' leaving other players to take solos. The drums often take a important role here, but often in an interestingly percussive way and much of the music has a dark brooding quality about it, which is not surprising when considering the context of the music - there is an especially haunting piece Theme of Desperation using two voices which is almost painful, yet quite serene (strangely).

In all of this one has to ask what John Carter has that has been so influential in the jazz world and especially the clarinet. How does he play even? John Carter's playing is modern, at a moment when many players moved away to the saxophone, being a more powerful instrument. Carter also seems to have combined various styles in a successful way, using some more avant garde techniques yet still remaining modern and lyrical. I can really recommend his solo recording 'John Carter: A Suite of Early American Folk Pieces for Clarinet (Moers 2086)' which after the initial opening piece, which sounds a little like 'Propulsion' from Jimmy Guiffre's Free Fall album, settles into a treat for solo clarinet fans, and quite easily accessible.

Finally it's interesting listening back to John Carter hearing his music which in the case of his last recording (1989) is over 20 years ago, yet his music and playing, approach and sound and compositions are modern even for today's standards. Unfortunately more attention is placed on other players of his generation, but interestingly enough modern giants such as Tim Berne, Gerry Hemingway and William Parker have all worked with and used John Carter as a sideman, showing the respect that he held in his lifetime. I also suspect that he was a very open minded person and probably someone who encouraged other musicians younger than himself. I'm tempted to send out a few email to these players to hear the real story behind the man who has been quietly been an important influence on our modern music scene.

Postscript :

'I'm tempted to send out a few email to these players to hear the real story behind the man who has been quietly been an important influence on our modern music scene.' Well, I did send emails out to Tim Berne and Marty Ehrlich but it seems there's no reply as yet from either. I hoping to get some response which I was looking forward to posting here as I thought some inside stories would be interesting to read. I'll keep you posted if anything shows up.

I should really do some more in-depth work on John Carter such transcribing some of his work. I've just started reading Steve Isoardi's wonderful book (The Dark Tree) on Horace Tapscott and the development of the Los Angeles avant-garde scene which is fascinating and it of course mentions John Carter. However one wonders at point someone may be tempted to write something on Carter as he seems to have been under documented. Here's a list of links that I've found on John Carter whilst browsing the net :

WFMU - Beware of the Blog
New York Times
Ninewinds.com
Misterioso
LA Times
Bells
University of Colorado
If You Know What I'm Saying (Blog)
Night after Night (Blog)
E Notes.com

I'll tidy these links up later and make them more user friendly (I'll also add more), but in the meanwhile it's cut and paste time!

Footnote :

Please also check out this post on Bobby Bradford, an equal partner to Carter on many recordings, and I imagine a close friend also.

A group which slightly reminds me of the early work of Carter and Bradford is the Empty Cage Quartet, check them out if you have time.

* = Here's a link to what seems to be a comprehensive discography for John Carter (thanks to whoever compiled it). You can get the complete discography of John Carter here. Unfortunately everything is not available, although I see Mosaic Records is bringing out a three CD box set of some of the early discs with a few unreleased items added in.

YOLK Records .... don't miss it #3.

2010-11-05T23:47:00.005+01:00

Alban Darche Trio - Trickster (Yolk j2027)

line-Up :
Alban Darche : saxophone ténor
Frédéric Chiffoleau : contrebasse

Emmanuel Birault : batterie

Well, here's my last review from the YOLK catalogue and the special offer series that they're running until the end of 2010. If you look at the other Yolk postings you'll get a better idea of what's going on, vis a vis this excellent french label and their special offers that pop up on a regular basis.

Anyhow, let's get back to the real meat of what this posting is about, the Alban Darche Trio CD Trickster. This is the first CD from the YOLK catalogue that I bought, actually I was looking for the live CD from Matthieu Donarier Trio (unavailable at this moment - no distributer), but due to the absence of this CD I opted for Alban Darche and Trickster, and a good choice it was.

Well, what do you get on this CD, some tricks, n'est pas! Yes, it seems (intentionally or not) much of this music is in fact a trick. Darche has overdubbed sax as backgrounds onto some of the tracks, and maybe the bass as well, but not in bad taste at all. The sound of the trio is very present (or up front one could say) on this CD, the only one I've heard from Alban Darche's Trio. As already mentioned, it's interesting to hear how the group has managed to smuggle in some overdubbed sax lines on various tunes to good effect, after all why not use the studio as a tool? But the main focus is on a very danceable sound and solid compositions, acctually due to the overdubbing some of the tracks sound a little like Polar Bear, in particular Novenus, with it's almost rock/dub beat.

Some favorites for me are Hybride with it's lovely lonely melody and overdubbed horns and a rolling bass rhythm leading to a joyous sax solo. Les Avatars sounds a little like Polar Bear but without the doubled saxes as does TOC with it's infectious beat and manipulated drum beats. In fact many of the tunes are like little pop melodies, easy to take in and fun to hear, Mammifère being another very easy melody to follow, but with blowing that is not your normal be-bop.

Alban Darche tries to bring a kind of post Mark Turner feel to the playing which is excellent even if not a complex harmonically. Unfortunately, we don't get to hear the other players 'solo', but one can hope that this will be developed in the next CD. All in all the music is very listenable with good melodies on all the tracks; however (for me) it does lack the depth of Matthieu Donarier's trio outing, but due to the directness of the music and the compositions .... who cares. The music is joyous and free wheeling, although never free, and very much influenced (I feel) by the world of reggae music. The drum and bass work together exactly like a Jamaican rhythm section - there's even a few manipulated drum sounds to go with it.

1. Hybride 2. Les Avatars 3. Enckavé 4. Trickster 5. Mammifère 6. Novenus 7. Passin 'by III 8 La Tahgerine Sucrée 9. TOC 10. Cycle de Ziriab : Dabcse #1 11. Le Clown Triste 12. Misty 13. La Conjuration des Imbéciles.

If you want to find somewhere to start - as I did - in the YOLK catalogue - then this is maybe your first choice?!

YOLK Records .... don't miss it #2.

2010-10-27T11:28:00.006+02:00

Qüntêt : Vents Dominants (Box Set Yolk 2023)

Here's the next in the great series from Yolk Records special offer series. As I mentioned in my last Yolk post #1 the Yolk record label occasionally does promotions on their CDs which are well worthwhile following up. If you read this post before the end of December 2010 you still have a chance to pick up on the great offers at Yolk's site here. They offer one CD a week - from a list of 11 discs chosen from their catalogue - at 5€. That disc then moves into a new category and will be available at 8€ until the end of the year/offer, not bad considering the quality of the music on offer, and if your interesting in investigating the music from this catalogue. YOLK Records tells me that the offer is good for everyone, which seems to mean worldwide, so no excuses for not checking out the CDs on offer. Anyhow, the last post was on Matthieu Donarier's excellent trio CD Optic Topic, today a short note about the above box set ..... 2 CDs and a DVD from Qüntêt.

As I already mentioned above this is a box set, so what do you get in here? I'll give a short run down of the three items (see) below, but first a quick explanation of what this project seems to have been about. The liner notes explain that the group was asked to participate in Europajazz, which is probably one of these funded projects that we get over here in Europe to promote composers, young groups, amateur music etc. Anyhow, the group wrote music for two brass bands from the area known as Sarthe and if you buy the CDs you can see the whole list of musicians (totaling 80 odd player, it's two brass bands). The compositions were rehearsed and then performed at the Europajazz in Mans 2007, or is it 2005 .... it's not very clear in the liner notes. Consequently all of this has been recorded and placed in a box set along with an album from Qüntêt making up this little package.

CD #1 - Faux Semblant

Qüntêt is : Jean-Louis Pommier : trombone, Christophe Lavergne : drums etc, Patrick Charnois : baritone sax, Alban Darche : alto sax, Médéric Collignon : pocket trumpet, voice, bugle.

This is the main disc in this package and is an album (as titled above) from the brass quintet Qüntêt. You can immediately understand why these guys were asked to participate in a brass band project as they are of course a small brass band! The music here written either by Jean-Louis Pommier or Alban Darche (*) is very varied in style, the quality of the writing excellent, and the arrangements really make the music hang together, never missing the sound of a traditional electric/acoustic bass. The compositions are in general quite funky, but with modern harmonies, and there are also other styles that appear throughout such as Polkas and Tangos - Polka and Un Poco Tango, un Poco Paso, mucho Loco. What I enjoy in particular is the way that the compositions are really developed so that when a soloist comes to the fore it's really an extension of the piece, and not the often used ... theme, solo (250 choruses), and then a little theme again. Here we are taken on voyages through various atmospheres, such as in the title piece Faux Semblant and the second track Isasong, both with excellent soloing from Alban Darche (often featured, and deservedly so). There's some excellent 'almost dissonant' writing with simultaneous soloing on an interesting on De Noël A Pâques. It's also nice to hear how they have used the drum/soloist combination to great effect in several pieces Total Schwarz, a lovely gentle ballad featuring trombone, which uses sax/voice to great effect on the theme. And on Prolongement Bulgar the sax or trumpet (Médéric Collignon) battle with the drums to great effect, in the solo section. This is an excellent album with plenty of detail and will surely keep it's interest for many listens. You can hear some of the compositions here on their MySpace which will give you a better idea of the music.

CD #2 - Vents Dominants

On this CD we get the recordings from the Europajazz project featuring the group with the brass bands - as I mentioned above. The CD has six tracks on it, 1 to 3 - feature the Harmonie de Ballon and tracks 4 to 6 - Harmonie du Bailleul Villaines. The music is well written and certainly must of been much fun to play. The brass band doesn't solo that's left, when needed, to the group Qüntêt, but there isn't that much and when it does happen they're short solos (often together). To best appreciate the music you have a DVD of the brass band rehearsing and gradually getting ready for the main performance, which you see a few extracts of. What's nice about the compositions/arrangements is that the composers Pommier, Darche and Collignon, have combined interesting melodies and arrangements that are not too complicated, yet don't sound simplistic, giving the brass band(s) a really quite modern and light sound, which for the number of instruments is quite extraordinary. If you understand french then you'll already get a gist of the music from the titles such as - Suite Arabe, Oh la Villaines, Chemn faisant, etc. I can say that the quality means that there is plenty here to enjoy, even if not quite on the level of the first CD.

The DVD - #3 Harmonies (28 mins).

There is not much to explain here as everything just has to be seen! What you have here is a documentary of the rehearsals, preparation and concert from the Europajazz. There are a few interviews with some of the local musicians and of course with the group Qüntêt. It's nice to see how the brass band reacts to the first contact that they have with the quintets music and to see how they progress with time and rehearsal. You also get a true feeling of achievement when the group/brass band(s) get to play at the final big concert at Europajazz in Nant, as all the preparation comes to fruition and the excitement of playing before a real audience (and a paying one, which is rare for them - the local brass band) is a high point of there musical journey. I thoroughly watching this DVD, and although I don't think I'll be getting out of the box every week, it surely makes an interesting and fun addition to this box set, which I'm sure to watch from time to time.

Here's the first track from Faux Semblant (title track also), hope you enjoy it.

The next (and last) post from this YOLK series, will feature the CD Trickster from the Alban Darche Trio.

(*) = see next posting on YOLK for more on Alban Darche.

Triangulation II - Bert Turetzky, Vinny Golia & George Lewis

2010-10-26T19:02:00.002+02:00

Triangulation II (Kadima Collective #30 - 2010)

Musicians : Bert Turetsky : Double Bass - George Lewis : Trombone - Vinny Golia : Woodwinds.

1. Reconaissance

2. Plenipotentairy Penache

3. Ballade

4. You Don't Say

5. A Low Frequency Colloquy

6. Diversion Ta Tre

7. Another Heated Conversation

8. Up Is Down

This is what my children are calling 'Ghost Music', which is in fact a great description for such a music as this. And when I say that my children gave it this title it's a big compliment, after all I notice that children (mine at least) often hear music in another way, giving names to sounds or melodies, with no prejudices about what they mean or might infer. So here we have it Triangulation II (#30) in the catalogue of Kadima Collective, a label run by Jean - Claude Jones.

The music here suits the ghost images very well as these improvisations are all based on atmosphere that could be described as cinematic - i.e. they would not be out of place on a film soundtrack. The reason for this, to my ears at least, is the interesting use of bass flute, bass saxophone and a few other 'extreme' register instruments by Vinny Golia. Due to imaginative use of wind instruments - clarinet, bass sax, flute, bass flute and others probably, the (un)usual trombone sounds of George Lewis which combines with the bass playing of Bert Turetzky, much of the music builds on atmosphere and rarely melodies, except for the last piece. Commenting on individual pieces is difficult and rarely do the titles of the tracks define the music - which is where Anthony Braxton's number system for titles springs to mind as a useful way of categorizing tunes/tracks without influencing the listener as to what they might hear.

However, if one had to describe the music at all I would say that almost all the pieces are ballads in feeling. Never is there any aggressive screeching and it's almost as if the musicians hoped to keep a calm reflective sound in the music, almost serene. Of course there are aggressive moments such as Diversion Ta Tre which use Lewis's singing harmonics combining with the bass later in the piece. The end section of A Low Frequency Colloquy also uses the bass saxophone to great effect. But the general direction of the music is towards a calm contemplative sound and much of that is due to the unusual choice and use of such instruments as the bass flute and bass sax. As already mentioned the last piece 'Up Is Down' has a quite amazing opening with flute, trombone and bowed bass creating an oriental atmosphere. The music gradually moves into much darker sounds only to return to the original motive at the end .... planned maybe?

All in all this is an album that reveals many details with listening. Whilst writing this review I would constantly hear sections passing which were beyond description when using words. George Lewis' unusual use of trombone sounds often become unidentifiable as such, and when combining with either the double bass of Turetzky and the wind instruments of Golia, create textures of real delicacy. A real success, and one that grows with listening. What more can one ask?

YOLK Records .... don't miss it #1.

2010-10-26T00:00:00.016+02:00

What is happening at YOLK Records is worth mentioning on this blog, and especially if you enjoy discovering new things and of course jazz. I hope that for those who read this blog they will be in time to catch the wonderful 'sale - special offer' that YOLK is doing at the moment (*). I've already come across YOLK before, although I can't remember how, and have so already bought music from this label. But, just to highlight a couple of the CDs that they are selling off at 5€!, I thought to quickly write a short review of three of the titles that I've bought ... so far. I should also add that the offer is based on a 'featured' CD each week for 5€, all other CDs (in the promotion) are 8€ for the duration of the promotion YOLK POUSUIT SON OPA, whatever that means.

The three CDs that I've taken this time are as follows, and I can highly recommend each release.

Matthieu Donarier Trio : Optic Topic (Yolk J2020).

The trio is : Matthieu Donarier : saxophones & clarinets, Manu Codjia : guitar electric, Joe Quitzke : drums.

Quite a lovely album and one I've been waiting for for quite a few months. When I first looked at this album it was out of print, and so I put it on my mental waiting list. Luckily this came up on the special offer and so now I get to hear the whole thing. The music is beautifully textured and well composed, in fact there isn't really a bad composition on this CD, different atmospheres and driving beats, coupled with great dynamics make for constant exciting listening. I've heard quite a few bass-less trios in my time - Paul Motian being the example for all - I've even played in that format myself, and it's certainly hard to keep up the quality of playing when you have no bass to fill the bottom register. Here you get it all, great playing (from all) coupled with strong compositions.

La Chute - 2nd track from the CD.

Starting with Choses Révées (le Jour) which is an atmospheric beginning leads directly into an excellent groove piece called 'La Chute' featuring soprano sax. What's great is the mixture of intensive grooves and delicate melodies ex : Jamais Contente an almost dissonant angular melody, followed by a hard hitting guitar burn out, finally becoming a very 'ppp' rhythm that has a lovely breathy clarinet improvisation (worthy of Jimmy Giuffre) that unfolds over the guitar/drum ostinato.

In fact I can't recommend this album highly enough and is easily a good buy for anyone who enjoys the likes of Paul Motian or Trio AAB.

You can check out some of his (Donarier's) music on MySpace here.

Tomorrow I'm writing about the Qüntêt box set ...... 2CDs and a DVD all for 5€? And lastly will be the CD Trickster from the Alban Darche Trio.

(*) = Not the first time they've done an interesting promotion, and surely not the last.
(**) = The offer finishes at the end of December 2010 .... so hurry!

The Man with a Glass Nose - Kurt Schwitters.

2010-09-29T14:18:00.008+02:00

Carrying on the work in progress theme that I've posted earlier (see links), I'm posting another bit of work in progress which I find interesting and fun, The Man with a Glass Nose. The 'modern fairy tale' by Kurt Schwitters has come from Lucky Hans and other Merz Fairy Tales translated by Jack Zipes. My friend Irvine Peacock suggested that I may be interested to participate in the the project concerning the works of Schwitters that he any several other British artists are working on.

After starting to work by myself on a sound collage (which still is a work in progress also), I decided that it may be interesting to work with another musician, or at least artist. I had been thinking of working using sound and electro-acoustics and so started to look around me for someone to collaborate with. It was at this moment that I came across Roald Baudoux, one of the professors of electro acoustic music and composition at Mons Conservatory (Belgium). We got together a few months ago and have since then been gradually working on various rough sketches for this project using improvised music, speech and electro-acoustics.

I hope that it will be possible to develop this project even further and maybe include another musician or even a dancer, or actor. However, for the moment we are still meeting up from time to time and working on refining the basic project for a 'live presentation'.

Here is just one of our rehearsals - i.e. excuse the 'p' popping sounds every time I get too close to the microphone.

Schwitters - The Man with the Glass Nose by joehigham

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Deep Tones for Peace - DVD/CD

2010-09-22T14:50:00.006+02:00

Deep Tones for Peac e CD/DVD release from the Kadima Collective.

Deep Tones for Peace is a project from the Kadima Collective run by (set up?) by Jean Claude Jones a bass player who emigrated to Israel in 1983. The project features master bass players mostly from the world of modern bass players, some classical, others from the world of improvised music and jazz. The players on this CD/DVD release are : -

Jerusalem : Hama'abada Lab - Mark Dresser, Barre Phillips, JC Jones, Bert Turetzky, Irina-Kalina Goudeva, Chi-chi Nwanoku, Thierry Barbe, Michael Klinghoffer,

New York : Manhattan School of Music - Sarah Weaver (conducting), Trevor Dunn, Henry Grimes, Lindsey Horner, Dave Phillips, Rufus Reid.

As you can see the players are split into two teams, why? Well, this is a project with a difference, and has been set up as a call for peace via the world of music and especially as you can see bass players. The idea (basically) is that two groups of bass players, in different places, play pieces of music via internet link up. SLM - for Telematic Contrabass Ensemble (I guess that's the piece Dresser talks about at the start of the DVD) is built on the bass notes of D and G, (meant to be) the lowest tones in the universe, or that's what Mark Dresser tells us, hence the title. However, what we get is much more than this, and a must for all budding free form music fans and off course bass players with a sense of adventure. I'll break the review down into the two separate elements, although from what I understand the DVD is a documentary about the project, and the CD is the performance of SLM.

The DVD
Deep Tones for Peace - a film by Christine Baudillon and Francois Lagarde (1h 30) :
This is really the most interesting thing to watch and listen to first. For someone like me - musician, but not a bass player - it really helps you understand what you're about to hear (in more detail) on the CD, although the DVD is NOT the music of the CD! However, there is added interest here with the inclusion of :

1) Dialog from JC Jones, who briefly describes to (maybe ?) a journalist, the idea behind this project.
2) Mark Dresser getting his team ready for the final project performance, which is heard only in it's entirety on the CD.
3) The most interesting bit is a chance to get to see the musicians performing, solos, duets, trios and sections together, although I'm not sure where these fit into the SLM - for Telematic Contrabass Ensemble project. From what we see at the end of the DVD - announcements from a presenter at the concert you see being filmed - this was several days of performances, with SLM being another part. The individual performances are very interesting, and mostly very accessible. Interestingly enough Bert Turetzky uses a poem over his piece which comes across very nicely and of course keeps your attention. Barre Phillips turns up in several situations, solo, in duet with Dave Phillips (via internet link up), and an excellent duo performance with Turetzky. We get to see Mark Dresser performing a very intense solo piece/improvisation (?) which is quite striking due to his masterful playing. Other performances that stand out are Irina-Kalina Goudeva performing a piece combining voice (hers) and bass, Thierry Barbe a piece using pre-recorded sound and bass, and JC Jones comes up at several moments solo, in trio, and quartet, much like Mark Dresser, with very strong emotional playing, or improvisations. I imagine that we are witnessing the first day - of concerts - with duo, trio, quartet and solo performances, or that's how it comes across.

The CD (48mins) (*)
SLM - for Telematic Contrabass Ensemble :
It's very interesting after having listened to and watched the DVD concerning the making of the music and it's performance. The music on this disc is made up of one long piece SLM - for Telematic Contrabass Ensemble, although everyone gets a feature at some point ..... I imagine? It is one of the small weakness with this edition that there is no information on who's playing at what moment, although one could argue, who cares, it's the music that counts. If you buy the CD/DVD package you'll also get to see more information about SLM - composed by Dresser and Weaver. There's a lovely booklet that goes with the package explains that SLM is a piece made using different compositional systems, including Soundpainting. (**)

Having said this there are some lovely moments of tranquil music which come out of the often dense sound of 13 basses. At 18 minutes a very lovely bowing solo from one of the players - Barbe maybe - brings in a nice rhythmical section using harmonics and low tones. At 21 minutes a solo pizzicato ostinato section with strange chordal sounds shimmering ushers in another soloist. The closest it gets to mainstream jazz (even post Coltrane) is around 34 minutes with another funky ostinato (Rufus Reid?) accompanied by percussive tapping from the bows. All in all the music reminds me of watching the sea, constant movement such as the swells of waves, long moments of very powerful walls of sound which eventually give way to more delicate sections. At the end of the piece the music kind of hovers for the last few minutes and finally comes to rest as if some sort of long journey is over.

Over all it's a very satisfying listen, if you're into hearing basses en mass, and if you're just open minded. You'll have to give it many listens to really get to know it well as there is so much going on through this recording. Often it's difficult to settle down to this type of music with such an unusual combination, and even though the music is almost 'epic' I think that in the end it's quite accessible, especially with a DVD to get you into the general climate. All in all it's an interesting addition to the bass catalogue, and after all where else will you find 13 of the worlds top bass players on the same record?

If you're interested to get hold of a copy I suggest looking at their website Kadima Collective here as I'm not sure if this will be available via larger outlets.

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(*) I listened, whilst writing this review, on my computer AND when I placed the CD in my machine it came up as 'Interview with Keith Richards' !!!!!!! Unfortunately I can't tell you why, but if this happens, maybe you should let JC Jones know as iTunes could get this changed this way people know what they've really bought and are listening to.
(**) If you put Soundpainting into YouTube you'll find quite a few examples, which may help you to understand a little of how the system works 'practically'.

If you're a musician ..... weddings!

2010-09-20T13:37:00.000+02:00

If you're a musician you'll laugh out loud at this one, I don't think I need to explain anything to you about this.
If you are either organizing or going to a wedding you may find this quite informative (!!!!). It's really frustrating playing this type of 'gig' and is actually very stressful due to the attitude of the people at the wedding (event) and of course the person in charge, who usually has no experience of music, weddings and just plain practical business. A friend of mine told me once how a woman came up to him at a wedding and asked them to play a certain tune, which they didn't know. When they explained this to the woman she just explained ;

"Oh, it's easy, just follow my feet!"

And stories such as this are legend among musicians, and don't all happen at weddings, some are stories from bars, events and other places. I remember having to play my saxophone wearing a kind of large condom with a flame on my head to advertise some sort of anniversary of a shopping center in Luxembourg, unfortunately I don't have any pictures. or of course the many amazing song requests received over the years.

Many musicians can tell you stories that will make you cry with laughter over this type of event. If you have any good ones, just let me know as I will be very happy to add them to this post.

You will find more of these here, here and here ....... enjoy.

3 Mustapha 3

2010-09-10T09:28:00.002+02:00

Just a very short post to celebrate this ground braking musical band the 3 Mustapha 3. There is not much one can add to this post except to say that the 3 Mustapha 3 were of course well ahead of their time. I remember them being strong favorites of the alternative scene - post punk - with students, the unemployed, and anyone who enjoyed a bit of fun mixed with serious music. Of course what made the band so interesting was the Balkan music they used as source inspiration, along with oriental music, Indian, Japanese and other styles. Groups such as Pachora, The Paradox Trio, Balkan Beat Box etc didn't exist, and wouldn't exist until ten years later! The 3 Mustapha 3 were a truly genre breaking band, and had a lot of balls to be able to pull off such a stunt (making out that they were from somewhere in the Balkans .... as a joke of course), it also gave them a slightly mystical aura. The music sounds a little dated nowadays I suppose, but if I remember correctly from other peoples stories, the group was sublime in concert and didn't transpose well onto LP. However, I bumped into this video on YouTube and thought that it would be nice to place it up here for one and all to see or discover. Although it's not the band at their best it at least gives you a taste of their zany originality.

I notice that some sessions were recorded for John Peels show (which I vaguely remember), so if anyone running across this post that has any live recordings of the band from this period ..... I'd be most interested to hear from you.

The music's coming back #2

2010-09-06T10:48:00.004+02:00

Here's two albums that changed my view of music. The first is an album that I discovered (or remember) retrospectively, and the second is an interesting one as I bought and sold it almost immediately!

Nursery Cryme 1971 - although I first heard it in 1974.

When I was at school there were several different camps of music listeners, rock and roll (*) or progressive-rock - there were more things than that, but it sums up the basic listening camps. The rock and roll category listened to Hendrix, Free, Uriah Heep, Led Zeppelin, Groundhogs, Pink Fairies to name but a few. The intellectual prog rock crowd listened to Monty Python, Tangerine Dream, King Crimson, etc .... and Genesis. I should really add King Crimson's - Starless and Bible Black to my list ( see later, and funny tale) due to the fact that I took some time to really fall under the spell of Crimson, but when I did. Anyhow, Nursery Cryme was album I heard around 1974 and somehow stayed with me until this day, yet I never owned a copy until a few weeks ago! Strangely enough I remember having this album recommended to me by by a guy called Hans at my school. He had an excellent album collection, and I often popped by to borrow a few things. He was a few years above me and so had more sophisticated tastes ..... in comparison to my peers.

What struck me so recently about the music is the melodic complexity and tight playing of the band. Each song develops in a very natural way, keeping the listener engaged through the story (lyrics), which if I understand have often interesting hidden meanings (**). But the tunes themselves are all excellent from the opening Musical Box, which is one of the favorites (apparently) of the Genesis fans, all the way through to The Fountain of Salmacis, which somehow evokes King Crimson with the use of the mellotron which was apparently bought from the King Crimson crew. Peter Gabriel was a master of the of the theatrical, spinning stories which mix Victoriana (such as the cover images at this time showed), Greek myths and 1970's imagery. The Musical Box, is a good example of how the band worked musically, moving between fine instrumental passages - combining Gabriel's flute, imaginative use of guitars, sometimes picked (a la classical), strummed or acoustic sounding - and the excellent use of dynamics. All this is being used to great effect whilst the story is being told by the vocals usually in sections, giving a pseudo classical form - i.e. sections that develop. Of course this method was not only used by Genesis, bands such as King Crimson and Yes among others also used this system of sections, something largely lacking in todays rock and pop music.

Starless and Bible Black - 1974.

King Crimson's Starless and Bible Black is an excellent example of the two styles - long instrumentals and shorter songs. I remember this as my first introduction to KC, and far too advanced for my 13 year old ears at the time. I'd noticed this album in a local record shop 'Knights', where I wandered past every day to look through the LPs and see if something new took my fancy. This album was pinned up on the wall for show among the other new releases, and somehow it seemed intriguing and mysterious, although I didn't have a clue of what the music sounded like. I finally bought the album on a whim and took it back to the school placed it on my turntable and blew my mind! That is to say, I didn't like it, it was very advanced for such a young listener as myself. I could relate to a couple of the songs - The Great Deceiver and The Night Watch and was also quite taken with a short track called The Mincer which had an interesting grungy feel at one point, plus a stop start thing with the drums and bass. But overall the two tracks on side 2 were just too much, and somehow I didn't see the point. The music was sophisticated and dense and didn't have recognizable guitar solos (aaahh), and I was listening (***) to more pop oriented music (everyday), so this music was difficult in comparison.

Anyhow, I sold the LP a couple of months later to someone in the school with more sophisticated tastes, yet the sound of the record stayed with me and I often thought about the music which I could hear in my mind. In between time my brother and I bought other Crimson albums which I grew to love. More recently I rediscovered the music in it's pure form on the Great Deceiver and Night Watch live CDs of these concerts. It was here that I realized that much of the music had been improvised and developed at a later stage (****).

(*) = My category due to the people I was hanging around with, although we were really just swapping LPs between us, so we heard everything. I remember hearing the likes of Gentle Giant and Kraftwerk (a great track called 'Ruckzuck') when they first appeared via an album called Suck it and See (a Vertigo Compilation) which we were all mad about.
(**) = Selling England By the Pound being a sly reference to Margaret Thatcher and her policies at that moment in time.
(***) = I was listening to the likes of Roxy Music, Free, Black Sabbath, The Faces/Rod Stewart, Slade, Ashton, Dyke and Gardener and other pop orientated music
(****) = It's interesting to realize how much of Crimson's work was in fact improvised, either completely or re-developed later as on the Starless and Red LPs. It seems that Teo Marcero was not the only one building collages out of live recorded improvisations, King Crimson used this technique on ; Larks Tongues in Aspic (the track of the same name Pt 1 on the album), on Starless and Bible Black - Trio and Fracture and on Red - Starless, just to name the few tracks that I remember. On the Night Watch live CD you'll be amazed to realize you're actually listening to the same tracks that are to be found on the studio albums as much of this material was cut a pasted in to various tracks!

Clarinets - Jimmy Guiffre

2010-08-04T11:34:00.014+02:00

As I already mentioned in the 'pre-blog' talk, I'm not doing an in depth study of each clarinetist, or all of their albums, just some that I really liked and why. These are also just brief thoughts and reflections, which means if you're really intrigued then you should go out and look up these CDs/LPs. In some cases there is material laying around the net with live 'bootlegged' concerts, and I suggest that you also look these up as it's often very interesting stuff - not only for clarinetists - and is often material that has never been previously published, or edited in CD/LP form. BE CAREFUL not to download in print CDs as this is .........!

Jimmy Giuffre, my first choice of someone to write about when talking about clarinetists. I think that along with Artie Shaw, Jimmy Giuffre is the clarinetist that inspired me to take the clarinet more seriously. Although Chris Speed and Don Byron (as already mentioned) were clarinetists that made me aware of the instrument and it's possibilities (away from more traditional roles), it was Giuffre who somehow looms above all modern jazz clarinetists as a role model of modernity. I suspect that Tony Scott might be another of these icons. But what makes Giuffre so interesting was his move towards American folk music and his ability to effectively integrate this into an original jazz form. And more importantly his developments in third stream writing, leading eventually to the great trio with Paul Bley and Steve Swallow, that combined all of these elements (including) - atonality, free improvisation, folk melody, jazz harmony, free flowing time/pulse, etc. Along with this Jimmy Giuffre also possessed good technique, intonation and a beautiful round (and slight breathy) sound on his instrument. Interestingly enough he never moved (not that I know) onto the bass clarinet, although as followers of Giuffre will already know he also played earlier in his career tenor and baritone sax, and later on soprano sax also.

Here's a few remarks (*) on a couple of the albums that have influenced me.

The Jimmy Giuffre 3 (1957)
What a great record with the well known tune The Train and the River used in the film Jazz on a Summers Day. What I so enjoy about this record is the approach to combining jazz and Americana folk music together. I'm sure that Bill Frisell must have listened to this record many times, and especially due to the presence of Jim Hall. The titles themselves - The Crawdad Suite, The Green Country (New England Mood), Voodoo - evoke America in the same way that Bill Frisell's music does (especially the album This Land). At this stage Jimmy still plays Tenor, Baritone and Clarinet. I particularly like the piece called Two Kinds of Blues with the almost haunting clarinet melody which so lonesome in it's sound/melody. The trio at this stage was Jim Hall, Ralph Peña on bass and of course Jimmy as mentioned.

Piece for Clarinet and Strings/Mobiles (1959).
A strange record that was made for Verve Records in 1959. I discovered this album as part of the Lee Konitz meets Jimmy Giuffre CD reissue. It was a very nice surprise to hear Giuffre in this context with a string orchestra - of high quality. The pretext for the two compositions is quite simple Piece for Clarinet and Strings is written and Mobiles is improvised. In both cases they use the Südwestfunk Orchestra of Baden-Baden, conducted by Wolfram Röhrig, as you can imagine the recording is excellent and the music really benefits from this. The first piece is reminiscent of Bartok meets Copland and as the liner notes say ....... ' the third movement swings in a way Copland couldn't manage. The music is of course what nowadays is called Third Stream.

Free Fall (1962)
This is the third and final (official) album in the infamous trio's discography - Paul Bley/piano, Steve Swallow/bass and JG/ clarinet (only). I say infamous to seperate them from the other trio formations of 1) Jim Hall/guitar, Ralph Peña/bass, JG/clarinet etc & 2) Jim Hall/guitar, Bob Brookmeyer/trombone & JG/clarinet etc. This is 'the' album that as one critic said (something like) 'absolutely nobody was ready for this', and it's kind of true. What's also wonderful is the blend of solo clarinet pieces, trios and duos so that the album has a t times an almost suite like feeling. Steve Swallow explained how they would rehearse ( playing and also discussing) regularly trying out ways of playing, asking questions such as - "how can we play at a given rate of speed, but without a fixed tempo? For how long is it possible to improvise without reference to a tonic pitch?". The whole album is way ahead of it's time (1962) and was the end of the trio ...... again Steve Swallow said "we disbanded on the night we each made 35 cents". The music was far too advanced for that time and even now it still sounds modern.

Other albums that I also love being :
The Easy Way - Jimmy Giuffre 3 ("The three of us fell into a oneness which allowed the music to roll out naturally." Jimmy Giuffre wrote of this 1959 session with Ray Brown on bass!).
Fusion and Thesis - Jimmy Giuffre Trio (nowadays reissued on a double ECM CD, but originally two albums 1961).
Emphasis Stuttgart and Flight Bremen (Wonderful live recordings of the concert tour of the 'infamous' trios tour of Europe in 1961, nowadays a double CD on HatHut).

* = These little articles are not about the complete discography just the ones that have influenced me. Secondly, I don't posses all the CDs/LPs of these artists and being very lazy probably wouldn't have time to write about all the recordings.
** Intersting article on All About Jazz here.
*** A really nice appreciation - blog posting - about discovering Jimmy Giuffre here.

Clarinets (A - Z)

2010-07-22T12:47:00.016+02:00

You'll maybe notice at the top of the blog a 'new' bar mentioning Home and Clarinets A-Z. This is the beginning of a list or page of links (in this blog an elsewhere) to clarinet players of interest in the jazz world. I decided after noticing a few remarks on other blogs mentioning the likes of John Carter and various other players, the lack of information on this wonderful instrument ..... especially in jazz! If I had to continue on I'd start to add players such as Richard Stolzman, Thea King, Ivo Papasov, Selim Sesler, Hüsnü Sendendirlici and the list goes ........ on. But, to be realistic I'll stick (for the moment) with those players found in the jazz world. This list is NOT complete, I will try to add to it over time with new people that I've heard playing and short comments on their music and recordings.

I had a MySpace page, which is now deleted, called The Blackstick where I tried to promote the clarinet by bringing together as many players of this instrument as possible. However, due to copyright laws I got fed up with endless emails and blocked accounts by MySpace and so ended taking the page down. To me it seemed kind of sad that an instrument that is often 'in the shadows' when talking about the jazz world, still doesn't have a larger following, especially in this day and age. However; one should be thankful that players such as Don Byron and Chris Speed have popped up and so given the clarinet some sort of credibility. I mention these two players as they really seem to have given the clarinet some sort of new life 'publicly', for young players, influencing them to take up (or continue) playing jazz, nu-jazz, rock-jazz and improvised music etc using this very difficult instrument.

I'm sure I've missed out many players from this list and I'll be more than interested to here/read any suggestions for players to be listened to (we have a fantastic audio library here in Belgium). I have just made this list from memory and what I have in my CD/LP collection. Some of the players are just doubling (which doesn't make them lesser players), so can be found playing the clarinet on a track or two of a CD, others are featuring the instrument most of the time.

Try typing jazz clarinet into the YouTube search engine and see what comes up!

New blog list

2010-07-22T08:39:00.005+02:00

Just a quick posting to suggest that anybody interested in serious music discussion should not forget to check out the 'Journalistic' music blogs list that I've started (see blog lists etc). After reading Ethan Iverson's blog, on many occasions, I start to realize the enormity of the number of blogs out there discussing (non stop) various concepts, likes and dislikes. It's almost impossible to stay up to date with the likes of all of these, but somehow in my spare moments I browse through some of what's on the list.

Read the interesting article on Richard Muhal Abrams here. I was particularly interested (yet again) by an appraisal on the work of John Carter which can be found here which is on Steve Smith's blog 'Night after Night'. This was in response to Ethan Iverson's post back in 2006 about great jazz recordings between 1973 - 1990 ( found here if his blog hasn't moved *). I'm certainly inspired to write a response to this article at a later date as the porr exposure that the jazz clarinet has had until now is amazing and it is maybe time to make a little appraisal of this instrument in the next blog article.

Anyhow, please check out some of these blogs as I add them (and move them around from one box to another).

* = The Do the Math blog is moving address sometime in July 2010.
** = Another interesting article about John Carter here.

World Cup, how it should be!

2010-06-28T00:30:00.002+02:00

Now that's fun, or at least how it should be!!!!